Today’s blog is composed by our Waxter Intern Miel Hunt, who visited the Lillie Caroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum, Baltimore’s first privately owned museum honoring an African American woman, to learn more about the Civil Rights activist and her lasting impact on Maryland.
While Lillie May Carroll Jackson was born with an interesting family history, it wasn’t the type of family history that would open doors for her, especially as a Black woman. Born in Baltimore in born in1889 as the seventh child of a Methodist minister and the granddaughter of an African chief, there was no silver spoon in Dr. Lillie’s mouth. She had no money to fall back on and instead made it herself through real estate and then devoted herself to change. She completed her teaching education at the Colored High School and Normal School in 1909. She taught second grade at Biddle Street School.
Dr. Lillie was involved with the church, singing soprano for the choir at the Sharp Street Methodist Church. Occasionally, the church would show religious motion pictures, which is how she met Methodist evangelist Keiffer Albert Jackson, her future husband. She sang for him, and years later they were married. Later she would joke that it was her voice that he fell in love with. The two would travel around the country together, showing silent religious films while Dr. Lillie sang and lectured. There, she gained a lot of experience in public speaking, which helped her later in life.
The two settled in Baltimore before the birth of their fourth child, wanting better schools for their three daughters. Dr. Lillie invested in real estate, giving her a solid income for her family and to support her later causes. Later, in an interview, her daughter, Virginia Jackson Kiah, said of her, “She’d even get up on the roofs of garages in the rears of several of the houses she owned in the 1600 block. And she would patch roofs—patch herself. She’d put on my father’s pants, and she did things in that fashion.”
Dr. Lillie’s daughters, Juanita and Virginia, founded the Baltimore City-Wide Young People’s Forum in 1931. Due to her status as a landlord, Dr. Lillie was able to support the group. The group worked to fight the ongoing discrimination practices. Together they worked with others like Kiowa Costonie on the “Buy Where You Can Work” campaign, a successful effort that had African Americans boycotting businesses without Black employees. Another successful campaign was the “Register-to-vote campaign,” which resulted in over 20,000 new registrations. Around that same time, 1935, Dr. Lillie became the leader of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the thirty-five years she led the NAACP, she never took a paycheck.
As leader of the NAACP, Dr. Lillie was able to mentor civil rights lawyers and raise funds to support their cases. She was instrumental in the desegregation of schools after Brown v. Board of Education. In 1935, she was part of a case that fought to allow Black people to attend the University of Maryland Law School. Her daughter, Juanita Jackson, had previously applied to the University of Maryland but had been denied because of the color of her skin. In 1947, twenty years after she had initially applied, Juanita Jackson graduated from the University of Maryland with a law degree. She was the first Black woman to do so.
Dr. Lillie fought for the big and the small. Juanita remembers, “Prior to my mother’s taking over the NAACP, its membership was limited to the doctors, teachers, lawyers, clergymen, and so-called educated blacks.” Dr. Lillie expanded the organization to prioritize the people rather than their occupation or income. Juanita continues, “In her first membership campaign in ’35, she went to the little people. She walked the streets collecting memberships. She said, “We’re all equal in God’s sight. The NAACP is God’s organization.” She was able to grow the membership of her chapter from 100 in 1937 to 17,600 in 1946. Her primary goal was to “help secure freedom and justice under the law.” She challenged Jim Crow laws, eventually succeeding in allowing Black police officers to wear uniforms (before they had been in street clothes), opening civil service jobs, and desegregating public pools and parks. Perhaps their largest victory was the passing of Baltimore’s Fair Employment Practices Law in 1958, a law that prohibits discrimination in “employment, public accommodations, education, and other areas based on race, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, color, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.”
Lillie May Caroll Jackson was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from Morgan State College in 1958. After her death, she was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986. The very next year, her daughter, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, was awarded the same honor. In 1999, Lillie May Caroll Jackson was named Marylander of the Century by the Baltimore Sun. The Lillie May Caroll Jackson Museum first opened (at the site of the home where she lived for more than twenty years) in 1978 as Baltimore’s first privately owned museum honoring an African American woman. Unfortunately, the museum closed in 1997 due to the structure being untenable. Morgan State University took responsibility but needed to raise funds for the necessary renovations. The museum formally reopened in 2016. I visited the museum and enjoyed an incredibly informative tour from Dr. Iris Barnes, the lead curator, and director. The museum is located in Baltimore, in the house where she hosted a myriad of civil rights figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Jackie Robinson. The home tells the story of her life and the figures she supported in her life. The museum, like her, is a testament to the work she put in and what she was able to accomplish.
Special thanks to the Maryland Center for History and Culture for their oral interviews with Virginia Jackson Kiah, Juanita Jackson Mitchell, and Bowen Jackson.
Content for this blog was compiled with the help of our Waxter Intern Miel Hunt. Miel Hunt is a recent graduate of the Ithaca College Park School of Communications. Raised in Texas, France, and Maryland, her multicultural upbringing opened her eyes to new perspectives and ignited her passion for history and storytelling. She is thrilled with the opportunity to combine those interests with Preservation Maryland. Having lived 5 years in France, she speaks French and is a bit of a Francophile particularly concerning French history. However, after over a decade in Maryland, she is proud to call it her home.