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John Glover Jackson (April 1, 1907 – October 13, 1993) was a Pan-Africanist historian, lecturer, teacher and writer. He promoted ideas of Afrocentrism and Jesus Christ in comparative mythology.

Jackson was born in Aiken, South Carolina on 1 April 1907. At age 15 he moved to Harlem, New York where he enrolled in Stuyvesant High School. During this time, Jackson became interested in African-American history and culture and began writing essays on the subject. They were so impressive that in 1925, while still a high school student, Jackson was invited to write for Marcus Garvey's newspaper, Negro World.^[1]

From 1930 onwards, Jackson became associated with a number of Pan-African historians, activists and writers, including Hubert H. Harrison, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, John Henrik Clarke, Willis Nathaniel Huggins and Joel Augustus Rogers. 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. A staunch atheist, he authored a number of books on the idea, including The African Origin of Christianity (1981), Christianity before Christ (1985), as well as writing the foreword to Gerald Massey'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.^[2]

During 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 13 October 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. Egypt Revisited (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)

See also

• Pan-Africanism
• Afrocentrism
• Black Nationalism
• Willis Nathaniel Huggins
• Gerald Massey
• Kersey Graves

References

1. ^ AfricaWithin, short biography.
2. ^ Africa Within, bibliography.

External links

• Was Jesus Christ a Negro? A Rationalistic Review by John Jackson (1933)
• The African Origin of the Myths & Legend of the Garden of Eden: A Rationalistic Review by John Jackson (1933)