“ UNDER THE SUN – A BLACK JOURNALIST’ S JOURNEY”
A FEW WORDS ABOUT WORDS
BOOKSMART
By ADDIS ROMERO
God seems to like catching our attention when we least expect it,” is the opening line of the story Harold Jackson tells in his autobiographical book,“ Under the Sun.” It is a softly spoken, but riveting account of his rise from an impoverished childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, to a Pulitzer Prize – winning journalist.
Born in 1953, Jackson spent the first 24 years of his life in Birmingham’ s Loveman Village, a rigidly managed public housing project where the number of two-parent families declined sharply during the time he spent there.
“ Under the Sun – A Black Journalist’ s Journey” takes readers on a deep historical journey that traces how Jackson built a successful career in journalism despite nearly all odds being stacked against him. Interestingly, Jackson tells the story of his early life in the broader context of the people and events that made the Birmingham of his youth a part of the civil rights struggles and racial divisions of the 1950s and 1960s.
Founded in 1871 by Northern industrialists, Birmingham emerged as a site of economic opportunity built on coal mining and industrial labor. These industrialists exploited both White and Black male workers and relied on the South’ s deeprooted racism to prevent them from unionizing, prioritizing profit over the needs of workers.
Jackson emphasizes that Birmingham’ s racism existed long before the infamous 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that would later sully that city’ s reputation. It was that blast, which killed four Black girls in Sunday school, that earned the city the moniker:“ Bombingham.”
Jackson reflects on moments from his early life that reveal how normalized racial exclusion had become.
As a five-year-old, he recalls having to rush to find an alley to use the bathroom because Black children were not allowed to use restrooms in department stores even as their parents shopped in them. Even within the school system, Black children in Birmingham encountered hurdles. Jackson also reflects on the toll that racial discrimination in the city’ s public schools and the death of his father took on him and his family. At a young age, he had to cope with the instability that both forced him to bear.
With the loss of its primary provider, Jackson’ s family struggled to survive. His mother and siblings had to take on odd jobs just to barely scrape by. The combination of under-resourced schools
for Black children and the loss of his father shaped Jackson’ s childhood and laid the foundation for the determination that would later define his career.
As Jackson grew older, education became one of the few spaces where he could imagine a future beyond mere survival. Journalism eventually emerged as a path through which he could make sense of the world around him.
Storytelling allowed Jackson to give voice to stories that were often ignored, particularly those involving Black communities. Though some newsrooms portrayed themselves as neutral and objective, Jackson found that biases were at the root of their day-to-day operations – and were shaped by unspoken rules that privileged whiteness. His background had prepared Jackson for these realities, but that preparation did not make them any easier to endure.
Jackson’ s belief that God often“ catches our attention when we least expect it” was born in 1996 when he learned his brother, Calvin, was dying of AIDS. The news came to him from an unknown caller as he sat in his office at the Baltimore Sun, where he was an editorial writer.
Five years earlier, Jackson – along with Ron Casey and Joey Kennedy – won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials he wrote for the Birmingham News about Alabama’ s inequitable tax system. It was one of many pinnacles in a long journalism career. In addition to papers in Birmingham and Baltimore, Jackson worked for the Houston Chronicle and the United Press International wire service before joining the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was editor of the editorial page.
Ironically, Jackson said the greatest freedom he was given“ to write without the constraints typically placed on Black columnists by their publications” came when USA TODAY columnist DeWayne Wickham invited him to contribute a chapter to his 1996 anthology,“ Thinking Black: Some of the Nation’ s Best Black Columnists Speak Their Mind.” Jackson wrote a very revealing column about A. G. Gaston, the 101-year-old Black Alabama businessman whom some called an“ Uncle Tom,” who had an estimated net worth of $ 130 million.
The list of people Harold Jackson met during his 45-year journalism career reads like a who’ s who of the world’ s top newsmakers. Among them were three U. S. presidents, leaders of the Soviet Union and Pakistan, as well as a long list of senators, governors, mayors and civil rights leaders.
“ I was happy to listen to them, happy to publish what was on their minds, and even happier when I could add my two cents to the conversation,” Jackson said in the book’ s epilogue.
It’ s a good bet that people who read this book will be happy that Harold Jackson shared this inspiring account of his life. ■
Addis Romero is a senior research fellow at the Center for New Media & Strategic Initiatives
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