He never separated the gospel he preached from the justice he pursued. This is the work of both.
His Episcopal Ministry
A narrated reflection on Bishop Jackson’s life and service as a pastor.
From 1994 to 2012 he served as President and executive director of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey, a coalition representing more than 600 churches. He served 16 years on the Orange Board of Education (12 as president) and 13 years on the Board of Trustees of Essex County College (10 as president). He was outspoken on nearly every major issue in the state — school funding for poor districts, charity care, predatory lending, the death penalty — and received four pens from three governors for legislation he helped pass. Senator Cory Booker described him as a figure no one active in New Jersey politics could afford to ignore: a force in his own right whose counsel was essential.
His most consequential civil-rights work came after two New Jersey state troopers pulled over a van in 1998 because it was driven by a Black man, and fired eleven shots into it, wounding three occupants. Bishop Jackson led a sustained public outcry against the State Police. Despite death threats, he pressed on until the agency was placed under federal oversight that lasted a decade; the state also settled with the three men for nearly $13 million. New Jersey went on to make racial profiling a crime — the only state in the nation to do so — legislation he was instrumental in advancing.
As Bishop of the Sixth District, he brought decades of organizing experience to Georgia. Through get-out-the-vote efforts he helped bring hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls in 2020, and played a pivotal role in the Senate campaigns of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. When Georgia moved in 2021 to restrict Sunday voting, he organized a boycott of major Georgia-based companies until that provision was dropped. He backed Democrats more often than not, but insisted he was beholden to no party — he had supported Republicans before, including Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.
Governor Phil Murphy remembered him as a trusted source of guidance whose commitment to faith, social justice, and civic life left an enduring mark on the state. Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and Lieutenant Governor-elect Dale Caldwell called him a towering moral force and one of New Jersey’s most influential faith leaders.
His Fight for Justice
A narrated reflection on Bishop Jackson’s role in social justice and civil rights.