Inez
Jackson

BIO:

Inez Jackson (née Young) was born in Texas in 1907. After graduating high school, she moved to Oklahoma, where she joined and later became president of the local YWCA and attended Langston University to obtain a teaching certificate. While there, she married Leon Jackson, who was a barber. When he got drafted into military service, he opted to go work in the Oakland shipyards, so Inez moved out with him to California. She was told that schools in California were integrated and applied to be a public-school teacher in San Jose. However, she was told that the school system did not hire Black teachers and was forced to find other work. She began picking fruit at a local cannery and joined local organizations that advocated for the rights of African American people.  

In 1948, segregation was abolished in civil service, so Jackson took and passed the civil service examination. The post office still refused to hire her, so activists consistently campaigned until she was finally hired as the first Black postal clerk in San Jose in 1949. The redlining process made it difficult to find a home, so she moved into the Northside neighborhood, which is where most African-American people in San Jose lived at the time. Throughout her time living in San Jose, she was an active member of the community, encouraging other black people to break through barriers to obtain professional roles, and urging action through non-violent forms of protest. She became president of the local NAACP branch in 1969, serving a four-year term and continuing to be active in the organization throughout her life. She also was the first African American president of the YWCA in San Jose.  

Jackson founded the African American Community Service Agency in 1978 as a center to provide for the local Black community. The agency is still serving the community today and remains one of the only African American cultural centers in the Silicon Valley. The Inez C. Jackson library at the AACSA was established in 1981 in her honor.  

Womanhood is a public art and digital media project that promotes the historical contributions of women to Santa Clara County. https://womanhoodproject.org/ 

Womanhood is supported by the County of Santa Clara Office of Women’s Policy.