Obituary: Travis E. Jackson, Educator, Historian, Activist

Educator, historian and civil rights activist Travis Edward Jackson died June 24 at his home in Rockland County. He was 87.

Jackson was just 9 years old when the parents of Hillburn's segregated school system enlisted the help of a young attorney with the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, to protest the fact that the Main School, attended by white students, had a library, a playground and indoor plumbing while the Brook School did not.

The Brook School students boycotted classes as they demanded changes. In September 1943, the New York State Commissioner of Education closed the Brook School and ordered that all 49 children, Jackson among them, be admitted into the Main School.

The case would serve as the precursor for the precedent-setting Brown vs Board of Education case that ended the legal segregation of schools across the country.

However, the parents of the white students all removed their children from the Main School and sent them to private schools. It was years until Jackson would be in school with white classmates.

He graduated from Suffern High School in 1952. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater, SUNY Cortland, and earned a master's degree from New York University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Jackson spent some 30 years as an educator and school administrator, mostly at Suffern Junior High and at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

He was an early inductee into the Rockland County Civil Rights Hall of Fame, and his athleticism and coaching efforts led to his induction into the Rockland County Track and Field Hall of Fame.

In 2018, then-Rockland County Legislature Chairman Toney L. Earl presented Dr. Jackson with the Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, in recognition of his many achievements and contributions.

In a statement about Dr. Jackson's death, Earl said, "My heart is truly heavy knowing that a person I have so respected for so long has passed. Travis E. Jackson stood for all that is right, from his boyhood to adulthood, and his contributions have enriched all of our lives. I offer my sincerest condolences to his wife, Deborah, and his children, Susan and Travis W.

"Travis E. and his parents, Benjamin and Susie Hatter Jackson, joined their African American neighbors in Hillburn and worked with Thurgood Marshall to right a terrible injustice that was going on here in Rockland County. Their courageous and determined efforts forced the desegregation of the local schools and laid a path to better educational opportunities.

"Dr. Jackson was courageous and kind and encouraging and so much more. His personal experiences and his detailed research helped shed light on Black history locally and by extension, nationally. If he hadn’t kept telling the stories, we may never have learned about the Hillburn case and about the fact that African Americans were able to organize, and like any American has the right to, rely on the Constitution to bring positive changes. He will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to know or work with him.”

Dr. Jackson was devoted to researching the whole story of history, an effort that meant the inclusion of African American struggles and contributions. He received the Margaret and John Zehner Award for Historic Preservation and he made critical contributions to Rockland’s Quadricentennial celebrations, including the ‘Mighty River’ project focusing on the contributions of African Americans to industries along the Hudson River.

He wrote and spoke extensively about the desegregation of Hillburn’s schools and helped others learn that the important event took place, including participating in a documentary, Two Schools in Hillburn.

Visitation is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Wanamaker & Carlough Funeral Home in Suffern. A prayer service will be held at the funeral home at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

Listen or read the transcript of an interview with Dr. Travis, conducted by Ellen McAdam and part of the Library Association of Rockland County’s Oral History Digital Collection.

Above or here, see the special clip about "Two Schools in Hillburn" put together by the filmmakers, Joe Allen and Chris Kehnle.