__NOTOC__ John Glover Jackson (April 1, 1907 – October 13, 1993) was an American

Pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement ext ...

historian, lecturer, teacher and writer. He promoted ideas of

Afrocentrism Afrocentrism is an approach to the study of world history that focuses on the history of people of recent African descent. It is in some respects a response to Eurocentric attitudes about African people and their historical contributions. It ...

, atheism, and

Jesus Christ in comparative mythology The study of Jesus in comparative mythology is the examination of the narratives of the life of Jesus in the Christian gospels, traditions and theology, as they relate to Christianity and other religions. Although the vast majority of New Test ...

Early life and education

Jackson was born in Aiken, South Carolina, on April 1, 1907, and raised

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

. At the age of 15 he moved to

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

, New York, where he enrolled in Stuyvesant High School. During this time, he became interested in African-American history and culture and began writing essays on the subject. His work was noticed and in 1925, while still a high school student, Jackson was invited to write for

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

's newspaper, ''

Negro World ''Negro World'' was the newspaper of the Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA). Founded by Garvey and Amy Ashwood Garvey, the newspaper was published weekly in Harlem, New York, and distr ...

''.

Career

From 1930 onwards, Jackson became associated with a number of

Pan-African Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement ext ...

historians, activists and writers, including Hubert Harrison,

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (January 24, 1874 – June 10, 1938), was a historian, writer, collector, and activist. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent. He moved to the United States in 1891, where he researched and raised awa ...

John Henrik Clarke John Henrik Clarke (born John Henry Clark; January 1, 1915 - July 16, 1998) was an African-American historian, professor, and pioneer in the creation of Pan-African and Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the ...

, Willis Nathaniel Huggins, Joel Augustus Rogers, and

. He also authored a number of books on African history, promoting a Pan-African and Afrocentrist view, such as ''Man, God, and Civilization'' (1972) and ''Introduction to African Civilizations'' (1974). He also became interested in the idea of Christianity's origins in the Egyptian religion. An unapologetic atheist, he authored a number of books on the idea, including ''The African Origin of Christianity'' (1981) and ''Christianity before Christ'' (1985), as well as writing the foreword to ''

Gerald Massey Gerald Massey (; 29 May 1828 – 29 October 1907) was an English poet and writer on Spiritualism and Ancient Egypt. Early life Massey was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England to poor parents. When little more than a child, he was made t ...

's Lectures'' (1974). He also wrote the controversial text, ''Was Jesus Christ a Negro?'' (1984), which argued that Jesus may have been a black man. In 1987, Jackson wrote a biographical article about Hubert Harrison for American Atheists entitled "Hubert Henry Harrison: The Black Socrates". In it, he praised not only Harrison's

agnostic atheism Agnostic atheism is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are atheistic because they do not hold a belief in the existence of any deity, and are agnostic because they claim that the existence of ...

, but also his educational and civil rights achievements. It was later published as a seven-page pamphlet. Jackson had previously lauded Harrison, and other Black atheists of Harlem, in a 1984 speech at the American Atheists national convention entitled 'The Black Atheists of the Harlem Renaissance'. During the five decades that he lived in New York, Jackson lectured at the Robert G. Ingersoll Forum of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. In his senior years, he revealed that he'd disbelieved in God from the moment he was old enough to think. Throughout his life, Jackson also served as associate director of the Blyden Society and lectured at many colleges and universities throughout the United States. He died on October 13, 1993.

Selected bibliography

*''Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization'' (1939) *''Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth'' (1941) *''Man, God, and Civilization'' (1972) *''Introduction to African Civilizations'' (1974) *''Foreword to Gerald Massey's Lectures'' (1974) *''The Mysteries of Egypt'' (1980) *''The African Origin of Christianity'' (1981) *"Egypt and Christianity" in, Ivan van Sertima, ed., ''Egypt Revisited'', pap. 65–80 (New Brunswick: ''Journal of African Civilisations'', Volume 4, Number 2, 1982) *''The African Origin of the Myths and Legends of the Garden of Eden'' (1984) *''Was Jesus Christ a Negro?'' (1984) *''Christianity Before Christ'' (1985) *''Black Reconstruction in South Carolina'' (1987) *''The Golden Ages of Africa'' (1987) *''Hubert H. Harrison: The Black Socrates'' (1987) *''Ages of Gold and Silver and Other Short Sketches of Human History'' (1990) *''Introduction to The Story of the Moors in Spain'' (1990) *''The Empire of the Moors'' (1992) *''Krishna and Buddha: Black Gods of Asia. African Presence Early Asia'' (1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, John G. 1907 births 1993 deaths Pseudohistorians 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics Afrocentrists American atheists American pan-Africanists People from Aiken, South Carolina African-American atheists Former Methodists 20th-century American historians

Early life and education

Career

Selected bibliography

See also

References