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Ellen Swepson Jackson

1935-10-29 – 2005-11-20

Portrait of Ellen Swepson Jackson
Biography: The life of Ellen Swepson Jackson, a dean and director of affirmative action at Northeastern University since 1978, has been one of involvement, often at the grass roots level, in local and national activities directed toward economic, educational, and political change. For two years in the early 1960s she coordinated, for the Northern Student Movement in Boston, parents groups concerned about the unequal education of the children. She is particularly noted for her work as founder/executive director of Operation Exodus, an inner city busing program in Boston, which transported more than 1000 students to less crowded schools. She is co-author of Family Experiences in Operation Exodus, Inc., published in 1967. She was executive director of the Black Women's Community Development Foundation in 1969 and 1970; project/contract director in the Massachusetts Bureau of Equal Educational Opportunity; and director of Freedom House's Institute on Schools and Education. She has been a delegate to several White House Conferences, including "To Fulfill These Rights" (1966), Children and Youth (1970) and Nutrition and Health (1970). Educated at Boston State Teachers College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she has been a fellow at the Institute of Politics of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been and continues to be affiliated with numerous organizations and boards, including the Governor's Community Development Coordinating Council, the Committee for Boston, and Women in Politics. She was cofounder and board member of the Young Women's Leadership Development Program, which offered free services to young women from poor neighborhoods. Always an active member of the Democratic Party, she has been a delegate to various conventions. She is also the recipient of awards, honors, citations from many organizations, including the NAACP, Zeta Phi Beta, and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women; perhaps the most meaningful tribute was the naming of the Ellen S. Jackson Day Care Center in Boston for her. Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Collection: Black Women Oral History Project Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp Questions? http://asklib.schlesinger.radcliffe.edu/index.phpCredit: Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University

Life & Legacy

Ellen Swepson Jackson (1935 – 2005) was an American educator and activist. She is best known for founding Operation Exodus, a program that bused students from overcrowded, predominantly black Boston schools to less crowded, predominantly white schools in the 1960s. The program paved the way for the desegregation of Boston's public schools.

Occupation & Career

educator, activist

Education

Boston State College; Harvard University; Harvard Graduate School of Education; Boston Latin Academy

Legacy Highlights

Employer

Northeastern University

Education & Institutions

Boston Latin Academy · Boston State College · Harvard Graduate School of Education · Harvard University

Sources & Provenance

  1. Wikidata population candidate Q28746249 — wikidata View source

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