Phillip Jackson was the quintessential Black man of our times. He was the embodiment and teachings of the village he grew up in and knew like the back of his hand. Jackson was born September 22, 1950, to Norma Freeney and Stewart Jackson and the middle child and only boy in a family of five children.

Founder of The Black Star Project, Phillip Jackson.

His vibrant journey would take him on a non-stop course of building a legacy so strong it radiant through everyone he touched. After enduring a long battle with cancer—the light which brought warmth, nurturing and character to so many lives would leave this earth on Sunday, November 4, 2018. His death would mark an end of the type of man Jackson was known as a rarity in human kindness.

Jackson’s sister, Gloria Smith, the Executive Director of The Black Star Project— an anonprofit organization created by Jackson in 2002, recalls the first signs of his leadership qualities as a child.

“Phillip was born in Altgeld Gardens, and later we lived in the Robert Taylor Homes. It was amazing to have someone come from that environment to rise to the rank of CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). We knew that Phillip had these leadership skills early on. As a young boy where we grew up where my grandmother had a store in the 1950s and 1960s,” she says. “He had a little red wagon and would pile all of the kids from the neighborhood into this wagon lead them in an imaginary parade. They all would follow his lead. Those were the first signs of his leadership.”

Their family was relatively large, and the close bond she and her brother had with their maternal grandparents would carry the lessons he learned throughout his adult life. “Our grandmother owned a grocery store on 42nd and Wentworth in the 1950s and 1960s,” Smith remembered and would instill financial management in Jackson.

“Phillip and I come from a family of social justice activists and educators. Our grandmother, Momma Freeney. There are Freeneys in Woodlawn and Argyle Gardens. We have cousins everywhere. We grew up as one of the few Black Mennonites in Chicago”.

“Our family was a part of that. Most of them were on the Westside, and we attended the Bethel Mennonite Church. Phillip and I went to Mennonite camp in St. Anne, Illinois back in the 1950s. Our uncle, Dr. Vince Harding and my aunt, Rose Marie

Freeney Harding was very active in social justice,” Smith recalls. She said their uncle, Dr. Harding became friends with Rev. Martin Luther King as they were starting the Mennonite House in Atlanta.

Harding would later write one of Dr. King’s speech. Smith says he would forever influence her brother’s approach to fighting for the voiceless. “The speech Dr. King gave on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York was exactly one year before he died. This sort of putting him on the world stage. It was the first time Dr. King would speak out against the war in Vietnam,” Smith explains.

The speech is called, “Beyond Vietnam, Time to Break Silence.” The speech was drafted by Dr. Harding who speaks about the triple evils in this country. She says, “Phillip was influenced by our uncle; the work of Dr.King, the Black Panthers, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X.”

While Jackson was attending Calumet High School, he would tune in to his favorite on-air disk jockey—Herb Kent every day on the radio. As one of the favorite deejays, he looked up to Kent.

Smith quietly smiles, “Phillip wanted to be just like Herb Kent. He started this business as a teenager where he would go around to these parties even before DJ’ing was popular and he would DJ. He had this little turntable he would play on, and his moniker was PJ the DJ. That was the start of his coming out and being active in the community.”

Jackson would graduate from Calumet High School in 1969. In 1974, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Roosevelt University and would enter the corporate world climbing through the executive ranks at Kroch’s & Brentano’s. There, Jackson helped grow the book franchise for 24 years, resigning after the company threatened to lay-off hundreds of employees. Leaving, he went to work at theOffice of Budget and Management of the city of Chicago and later joined the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) transition team with Paul Vallas in 1995.

Phillip Jackson with young CHA residents.

He became CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) in 1999, successfully negotiating a $1.6 billion deal with the federal government. Transforming public housing in Chicago, he helped raise residents’ quality of life. Phillip worked to improve living conditions in public housing with an emphasis on youth residents.

This would inspire him to create The Black Star Project, advocating for community involvement in education and the importance of parental development and activism. BSP would organize the annual Million FatherMarch inviting hundreds of thousands of fathers in nearly 600 cities across the country. To take their children to school on the first day each fall. Among BSP’s program included the Saturday University—a system of free, community-based learning centers designed to remediate and augment K-12 students’ skills in reading, writing, and math with the support of parents, communities, and an army of volunteers; the StudentMotivation and Mentoring Program.

Phillip Jackson was recognized by countless organizations including President Obama’sEducation Champion of Change for America by The White House among many distinguished honors.

His sister and the dedicated staff of The Black Star Project vow to continue Jackson’swork. Managing two other nonprofit organizations which include Veterans for Hope, Gloria Smith understands she has big shoes to fill following her brother’s death.

She admits, “We want to make sure the work of BSP makes an impact. These children are our future. We have a responsibility to do something.”