Jonathan Peter Jackson (June 23, 1953 – August 7, 1970) was an American youth, who died of gunshot wounds suffered during his armed invasion of a California courthouse. At age 17, Jackson stormed the Marin County Courthouse with automatic weapons, kidnapping Superior Court Judge

Harold Haley Harold Joseph Haley (November 14, 1904 – August 7, 1970) was an American judge. He was a Superior Court judge in Marin County, California. He was taken hostage in his courtroom, along with several others, during the course of a trial, and was k ...

, prosecutor Gary Thomas, and three jurors. Escaping with the hostages, Jackson demanded the

Soledad Brothers The Soledad Brothers were three inmates charged with the murder of a prison guard, John Vincent Mills, at California's Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette were alleged to have murdered Mills in ...

' immediate release from prison. The Soledad Brothers, a group of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

inmates facing charges for allegedly throwing a white prison guard to his death at

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...

, included Jackson's elder brother George Jackson. None of the Soledad defendants were at the courthouse on the day of the attack. In an ensuing shootout, Jackson and Judge Haley were killed, along with two inmates already in the courtroom, who had readily joined the attack; prosecutor Thomas was paralyzed and one juror was seriously injured. The guns that Jackson used were registered to political activist

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

, who previously formed a committee supporting the Soledad Brothers. Davis stood trial for alleged involvement in the kidnapping and was acquitted of all charges in June 1972.

Personal life

Jackson was the youngest of five children born to Lester and Georgia Bea Jackson. Raised in Pasadena, California, he attended St Andrew's School from 1965 to 1967 for grades seven and eight, La Salle High School for ninth grade (1967–68), and then Blair High School through his junior year.

Political Activism

Black Panthers

George Jackson includes passages in his 1971 book, ''Blood in My Eye,'' which he attributes to his brother Jonathan. These passages figure prominently in the development of the elder Jackson's theory of revolutionary praxis. Jackson had occasionally worked as a bodyguard for political activist

. Davis would later endorse the "spirit" of Jackson.

Marin County incident

On August 7, 1970, Jackson brought a satchel containing three automatic firearms, registered to Davis, into the Marin County Hall of Justice, where Judge Haley was presiding over the trial of

inmate

James McClain The Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, United States was the target of two related domestic terrorist attacks in 1970, tied to escalating racial tensions in the state's criminal justice system. On August 7, 17-year-old Jonathan ...

. Once inside Judge Haley's courtroom, Jackson drew an automatic gun, and, aided by McClain and Black Panther inmates Ruchell Cinque Magee and William Arthur Christmas, took Judge Haley as well as Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas and three female jurors hostage. Jackson and the other kidnappers bound the hostages with

piano wire Piano wire, or "music wire", is a specialized type of wire made for use in piano strings but also in other applications as springs. It is made from tempered high-carbon steel, also known as spring steel, which replaced iron as the material ...

and used

psychological torture Psychological torture or mental torture is a type of torture that relies primarily on psychological effects, and only secondarily on any physical harm inflicted. Although not all psychological torture involves the use of physical violence, there ...

to enforce compliance. The militants proudly encouraged responding journalists to document their actions as they loaded the hostages into a rented van, with the intent of transporting them to a nearby radio station where they would demand that the

be released. Responding police fired on the van that Jackson was driving in an attempt to end the attack. During the shootout, Jonathan Jackson, Christmas, McClain, and Judge Haley were killed, while Magee and Deputy District Attorney Thomas were seriously injured. Jackson's son, Jonathan Jackson Jr., was born eight and a half months after his father's death. A monument on the premises to Judge Haley was the target of a follow-up attack perpetrated by the

Weather Underground The Weather Underground was a far-left militant organization first active in 1969, founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group was organized as a faction of Students for a Democr ...

terrorist network in October of the same year.

In popular culture

Music

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

pays tribute to George and Jonathan Jackson in his song "Testify" from his untitled album. *

Hasan Salaam Hasan Salaam (born January 12, 1981) is an American rapper and sex educator born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. His lyrics touch on such subjects as "post-colonial exploitation of African ( hip-hop) culture", "the African diaspora". ...

references to George and Jonathan Jackson in the song "Get High Riddum" on the album ''Tales of the Lost Tribe: Hidden Jewels'' (i.e. ''"I fight for my freedom like George and John Jackson"''). *

Dead Prez Dead Prez, often stylized as dead prez, is an American hip hop duo composed of stic.man and M-1, formed in 1996 in New York City. They are known for their confrontational style, combined with lyrics focused on both militant social justice, self ...

mentions Jonathan Jackson in the songs "I have a dream too" and "Over" from their mixtape "Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz " *

Chris Iijima Chris Kwando Iijima (1948–2005) was an American folksinger, educator and legal scholar. He, Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin, were the members of the group ''Yellow Pearl''; their 1973 album, ''A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by ...

of the band, Yellow Pearl, wrote a song
"Jonathan Jackson"
on the album ''A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America''. *(Jeffery Cain) wrote and recorded the song "Whispering Thunder" on his similarly named album in 1971 a powerful message about the event and its meaning. *

Hussein Fatal Bruce Edward Washington Jr. (April 3, 1973July 10, 2015), better known by his stage name Hussein Fatal or sometimes as Fatal Hussein, was an American rapper, best known for his collaborative work with Tupac Shakur as a member of the rap group Ou ...

mentions George and Jonathan Jackson in the song "Dumpin'" on the posthumous

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

album

Pac's Life ''Pac's Life'' is the tenth and final studio album by American rapper 2Pac. It is also his seventh posthumous album, released on November 21, 2006, in the United States, on Amaru Entertainment. Its 2006 release date was intended to commemorate t ...

. *

's song Soulja's Story on his 2Pacalypse Now album is a reference to George and Jonathan Jackson.

Film

*The 2007 film ''Black August'' about Jackson's elder brother

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

also dramatizes the Marin County incident.

References

External links

FBI Docs
Jonathan Jackson FBI File {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Jonathan 1953 births 1970 deaths Place of birth missing Blair High School (Pasadena, California) alumni American kidnappers Criminals of the San Francisco Bay Area Deaths by firearm in California Activists for African-American civil rights