User:Bashorunoni/Dr Lillie M. Jackson

Dr Lillie M. Jackson. She was born on May 25 1889. She died July 5 1975 at the age of 86. She lived at 1320 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, Maryland, for the last 22 years of her life and when she died she willed her home to her oldest daughter Virginia Kiah, to be turned into a museum that will be "dedicated to freedom fighters, human beings of all races and creeds (Pash 1979). She was the first female black president of the NAACP, Baltimore branch, and during her tenure membership increased from less than 100 members to over 2000 members in 1935 and by 1946 there were about 18000 members, making the Baltimore branch one of the largest in the country (Pash 1979). She received an honorary Doctorate from the Morgan State University in 1956, hence the title of "Dr.” (Pash 1979) She came from a family of tradesmen, landowners, ministers and teacher. According to family legend her father was a descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton who was a signer of the declaration of independence, and her mother was the grand-daughter of an African Chief, John Bowen, who was never enslaved (Crisis 1975). Her father was taught to read and write by the ladies in the big house and because of his literacy he was sort of supervisor of colored schools Carroll county.

Crisis, The. "Dr Lillie M. Jackson: Lifelong Freedom Fighter." A RECORD OF THE DARKER RACES, October 1975: 297-299.

Pash, Barbara. "Civil Rights Museum." Sun Magazine, July 5, 1979: 10-12.