A. C. Jackson

A.C. Jackson was an African American surgeon who was murdered during the Tulsa race massacre in 1921 and is known as the most prominent victim of the massacre. Jackson was a leading member of the Oklahoma medical community and the African-American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma until his death. Jackson was considered as the "most able Negro surgeon in America" by the Mayo brothers, founders of the Mayo Clinic. Early life and education He was born in Memphis to Captain Townsend D. Jackson and Sophronia in February 1879. Townsend Jackson was a former slave from Georgia who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and Sophronia was a former slave from Texas. He was the youngest of three children. The family moved to Guthrie in 1889, where his father worked as the town jailer and was elected justice of the peace. Jackson graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville and trained as a surgeon in Memphis. Move to Tulsa In 1910, he married his wife, Julia, and due to increasing segregation and racial animosity toward African-Americans in Guthrie the young couple moved to the Greenwood district in Tulsa. Jackson set up his practice in Greenwood and served as the president of the state medical association. In 1916, he expanded his practice opening up a location in Claremore and in 1918 he met with the then mayor of Tulsa about opening up the "Booker T. Washington Hospital for Negros" on the corner of Boston Ave. and Archer St. The hospital was not built. He was a member of the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor and served on the board of directors of the Colored Orphan Home for Tulsa. Some of the surgical tools he invented are still in use today.