Anthony Jackson

Professor Anthony Jackson was born on June 20, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Geneva Jackson and Houston Jackson. He attended Washburn Elementary School in Cincinnati. While briefly living in Cleveland, Ohio, Jackson attended Frederick Douglass Elementary School and Empire Junior High School. He then returned to Cincinnati where he graduated from Hughes STEM High School in 1964. As a member of the school’s track and basketball teams and the starting quarterback of the football team, Jackson received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he served as the first president of the United Black Student Association. Jackson earned his B.B.A. degree in accounting from the University of Cincinnati in 1968, and received his M.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business in 1970. He later earned his Ph.D. degree in accounting from the University of Cincinnati in 1985.

Jackson was invited to training camp for the San Francisco 49er’s football team, but was cut from the team and enrolled in graduate school. While there, Jackson helped establish the National Black MBA Association and helped organize the first annual conference in Chicago, Illinois that included twenty-six schools, two representatives from each school, area business persons, university deans and academic administrators. Jackson also worked with the Breadbasket Commercial Association, Inc. that helped support local black businesses in Chicago, Illinois, and co-founded an accounting practice with James Hill, Jr. After earning his Ph.D. degree, Jackson became a professor of accounting at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and remained for three years until he accepted a position at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, where he served as chair of the accounting department. He also held faculty positions at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana; Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois; and Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1998, Jackson secured a teaching position at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, where he remained until his retirement in 2005.

Jackson and his wife, Ellen Jackson, have two children; Anthony Jackson, Jr. and Meghan Jackson.

Anthony Jackson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 15, 2017.

Jackson passed away on October 11, 2019.