Robert L Jackson was born in the mid 1950’s in the same town he resides today, Lambert, MS. His family were sharecroppers from the South of Quitman County, just North of conclave called Vance MS. He was the seventh of nine siblings to Weddie and Mary Jackson. They raised their family on the old A. L. King, Jr. Plantation. His family moved to Marks in the mid to late 1960’s just a year before the Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired Mule Train that was a part of the March on Washington to dramatize the poverty in the Delta and across America. HE was just 12-13 when all the people from out of town were there in the late 1967-68 when the marching and planning was buzzing around in Marks. He was inspired to improve his plight when he was a young child laboring in the cotton fields of Vance. He would see white children riding the big yellow school buses on their way to school while he and his family were required to be in the fields picking or chopping cotton all the while his counterparts were being educated.
Robert Jackson finished high school at Quitman County High in 1973. He was transferred to Marks High School in 1971-72 when integration was court ordered in the state and nation. Because of this move he barely graduated on time because the move thawed his opportunity to take MS History in the 10th grade at the predominantly white high school at Marks High. He was forced to take a correspondence course to make up the required units in order to graduate. He learned that he had passed the course through mail on days before he was to march at his graduation ceremony.
Sen Jackson went on to Northwest Jr College in Senatobia where he majored in Business Administration/Accounting and graduated in 1975. He furthered his education at the University of Southern Mississippi where he took a B S Degree in Business Administration in 1977. He was the first in his family to graduate college. He promised to return to his hometown to give back at least ten years of his life to the community since the federal government had paid for a great deal of his education through new programs called SEOG and BEOG grant programs for qualified low-income families and students.
He began his career by working for a non-profit that had just been organized by African American Community leaders; the organization is called Quitman County Development Organization, Inc. (QCDO) which is still in existence and Sen Jackson is still there and is currently the CEO since 1987. He has established additional institutions such as the Big River Housing Development Corporation, Quitman County Federal Credit Union-Quitman Tri-County Federal Credit Union-First Delta Federal Credit Union which is now Red River Federal Credit Union. He established the 21st Century Investment Club, Quitman County Voters League, Quitman County Food Buying Club and many others. He helped establish the Callie R Woods Scholarship Program that is now called the Callie R Woods/QCDO High School Scholarship Fund that is housed at the Community Foundation of Northwest MS in Hernando, MS. The fund is currently capitalized at $90,000.00 today. The GALA Fund raises money to fund at least 8 scholarships to students from Madison S Palmer High School annually.
One of the highlights of his life and career was when he applied and was selected to receive a fellowship from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellowship Program- KNFP Group 13. He was awarded this Fellowship which afforded him to study the concept of Leadership all over the world and as such he traveled the world in search of knowledge and connections. He traveled the continents of Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and Canada. And many times, he went to these places’ on multiple occasions.
Sen Jackson was first elected to political office in 1987 after running two times previously for the Board of Supervisors of Quitman County, District two where he served until 1995. He was elected to the MS State Senate in 2003 and has served in this capacity ever since. He is a man who believes in public service and has given and provided countless opportunities to youth and adults alike. He is a proud father of six children of a blended family with his wife of eleven years having married to the former Ms. Gloria Richmond. They currently reside in the town where they both were born.
