Kenneth T. Jackson

Jackson, a University of Memphis graduate (B.A., 1961) and University of Chicago alum (M.A., 1963; Ph.D., 1966),{{Cite web|url=https://www.hluce.org/about/board-directors/21-kenneth-t-jackson/|title=Board of Directors | The Henry Luce Foundation|website=www.hluce.org}} served three years in the United States Air Force, before joining Columbia as an assistant professor in 1968. At Columbia, he taught courses in urban, social, and military history, advancing to associate professor in 1971, professor in 1976, and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in 1987.{{Cite web|url=https://wagner.edu/newsroom/node-1009/|title=Leading NYC historian gives Kaufman-Repage Lecture Oct. 15|date=September 5, 2008|website=Newsroom}} He assumed the Barzun Professorship in 1990. In 1989, he was honored as Teacher of the Year by college students, receiving their 28th annual Mark Van Doren Award for "humanity, devotion to truth, and inspiring leadership".{{Cite web|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/academics/TrillingVanDorenAwards|title=Trilling and Van Doren Awards|website=Columbia College}} Columbia President George Rupp appointed him Co-Chairman of the University's 250th-anniversary commemoration in 1996.{{Cite web|url=https://c250.columbia.edu/dkv/eseminars/0708/web/main/0708_about.html|title=The Reinvention of New York|website=c250.columbia.edu}} He received the annual Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates in 1999 and was honored as New York State Scholar of the Year by the New York Council in 2001.{{Cite web|url=https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/tujackson_kenneth.html|title=New York State Writers Institute - Kenneth T. Jackson Times Union Article|website=www.albany.edu}} In November 2016, President Lee Bollinger granted him Columbia University's highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Medal, during a black-tie dinner in Low Memorial Library.{{Cite web|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/issue/fall16/article/professors-breslow-foner-jackson-to-receive-alexander-hamilton-medal|title=Professors Breslow, Foner, Jackson To Receive Alexander Hamilton Medal|date=September 30, 2016|website=Columbia College Today}} He retired from Columbia in 2020. Furthermore, he has served as a Fulbright Lecturer in Germany, Australia, and Japan, and as a visiting professor at Princeton, UCLA, and the George Washington University.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyhistory.org/press/new-york-historical-society-accepting-applications-2022-2023-fellowships|title=New-York Historical Society Accepting Applications for 2022–2023 Fellowships | New-York Historical Society|website=www.nyhistory.org}}

An advocate of history as the core of social studies, Jackson chaired the Bradley Commission on History in Schools from 1987 to 1990, aiming to enhance history teaching in America's elementary and secondary institutions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/october-1989/network-news-exchange-october-1989|title=Network News Exchange, October 1989 | Perspectives on History | AHA|website=www.historians.org}} Subsequently, he founded and served as the inaugural chairman of the National Council for History Education, an organization with a similar mission.{{Cite web|url=https://history.columbia.edu/person/jackson-kenneth-t/|title=Jackson, Kenneth T.|date=May 4, 2021}} Additionally, he directed seven National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars for high school or college instructors and ten intensive summer programs for the Gilder-Lehrman Institute for American History. He also served on the New York State Social Studies Syllabus Review Committee in 1990 and the National Council for History Standards between 1992 and 1996. Alongside these roles, he served as the president of the Urban History Association (1994-1995),{{Cite web|url=https://www.urbanhistory.org/Past-Leadership|title=Urban History Association - Past Leadership|website=www.urbanhistory.org}} the Society of American Historians (1998-2000), the Organization of American Historians (2000-2001),{{Cite web|url=https://www.oah.org/about/governance/oah-executive-board/|title=OAH | OAH Executive Board}} the New York Historical Society (2001-2004),{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/20/nyregion/looking-forward-to-reading-not-minding-books.html|title=Looking Forward to Reading, Not Minding, Books|first=James|last=Barron|work=The New York Times |date=September 20, 2003|via=NYTimes.com}} and the New York Academy of History (2014-2023).

Jackson was the general editor of the Columbia History of Urban Life, twenty volumes of which had appeared by 2020.{{Cite web|url=https://skyscraper.org/speakers/kenneth-jackson/|title=Kenneth Jackson|website=The Skyscraper Museum}} From 1990 to 1996, he held the position of editor-in-chief for the Dictionary of American Biography, followed by The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives from 1996 to 2005.{{Cite web|url=https://libcat.simmons.edu/Record/b2129769|title=The Scribner encyclopedia of American lives.|date=May 30, 2001|website=libcat.simmons.edu}} Collaborating with Camilo J. Vergara, he co-authored Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (Princeton Architectural Press, 1989).{{cite web|url=https://primo.bib.htw-dresden.de/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991213002581&context=L&vid=49HTW_INST:49HTW_VU1&lang=de&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI2&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,9780910413220|title=Silent cities the evolution of the American cemetery}} Among his books are The Ku Klux Klan in the City (Oxford University Press, 1967),{{cite web|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271626837800174?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.1|title=The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915-1930. Pp. xv, 326 New York: Oxford University Press, 1967|doi=10.1177/000271626837800174 }} the revised edition of the Atlas of American History (Scribner’s, 1978),{{Cite book|url=http://katalog.nukat.edu.pl/search/query?match_1=MUST&field_1=isbn&term_1=9780684150529&theme=nukat|title=Atlas of American history|first1=Kenneth T.|last1=Jackson|first2=James Truslow|last2=Adams|date=May 30, 1978|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|isbn=978-0-684-15052-9 |via=katalog.nukat.edu.pl}} and Cities in American History (with Stanley K. Schultz: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972). Working alongside Leonard Dinnerstein, he produced seven editions of American Vistas from 1970 to 1998, and co-authored Empire City: New York Through the Centuries (Columbia, 2002) with David Dunbar. His publication Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (Oxford, 1985) earned recognition from the History Book Club and was featured in special sessions at prominent historical conventions. It received prestigious accolades including the Francis Parkman{{Cite web|url=https://sah.columbia.edu/content/prizes/francis-parkman-prize?page=1|title=Francis Parkman Prize | Society of American Historians}} and Bancroft Prizes, and was listed among the New York Times notable books of the year.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/04/books/bancroft-prizes-given-for-2-books-on-history.html|title=Bancroft Prizes Given For 2 Books on History|work=The New York Times |date=April 4, 1986|via=NYTimes.com}}

In collaboration with Vergara, Jackson organized two public exhibitions. The first, titled Transformed Houses, was a project of the Smithsonian Institution focusing on domestic architecture in working-class neighborhoods. The second, sponsored by the Municipal Art Society in Manhattan, addressed physical devastation in ghetto areas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hccc.edu/news-media/resources/documents/happenings-september-2015.pdf|title=HCCC Happenings}}

Jackson served as the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of New York City, initially released in 1995 by Yale University Press.{{Cite web|url=https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/jackson_kenneth.html|title=New York State Writers Institute - Kenneth T. Jackson|website=www.albany.edu}} The encyclopedia, initially published in a single, 1373-page volume, underwent seven reprints and garnered recognition for its excellence in reference.{{Cite web|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/alumni/content/kenneth-t-jackson|title=Kenneth T. Jackson|date=January 26, 2017|website=Columbia College Alumni Association}} The second edition, published in 2010, included over five thousand individual entries on various topics including neighborhoods, ethnic groups, schools, religious denominations, and media outlets.{{Cite web|url=https://skyscraper.org/programs/the-encyclopedia-of-new-york-city-second-edition/|title=The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition|website=The Skyscraper Museum}} It was praised by the New York Times as indispensable for anyone interested in the city.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/08/books/you-could-look-it-up.html|title=You Could Look It Up|first=William|last=Grimes|work=The New York Times |date=October 8, 1995|via=NYTimes.com}}

==Awards and honors==

• Donald Sullivan Award, Hunter College
• Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Memphis{{Cite web|url=https://alumni.memphis.edu/s/1728/c20/interior.aspx?pgid=1817&gid=2|title=University of Memphis - Distinguished Alumni Awards Honorees}}
• Gold Medal of Merit, St. Nicholas Society{{Cite web|url=http://saintnicholassociety.org/awards/medal-of-merit/|title=Medal of Merit}}
• Notable New Yorker Award, Skyscraper Museum{{Cite web|url=https://skyscraper.org/making-new-york-history/1999-kenneth-t-jackson-and-robert-a-m-stern/|title=1999: Kenneth T. Jackson and Robert A. M. Stern|website=The Skyscraper Museum}}
• Delbarton Medal, Delbarton School
• Tannenbaum-Warner Award, The University Seminars
• Pintard-Benson Centennial Medal, New-York Historical Society
• Nicholas Murray Butler Medal, Columbia University
• Liberty Medal, New York Post{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2003/07/23/liberty-medals-historic-event/|title=LIBERTY MEDAL'S 'HISTORIC' EVENT|date=July 23, 2003}}
• Gold Medal, National Institute of Social Sciences{{Cite web|url=https://www.socialsciencesinstitute.org/advisory-council|title=Advisory Council|website=The National Institute of Social Sciences}}

Jackson lives in New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/campaign/impact/faculty/new-york-state-mind|title=A New York State of Mind|date=May 22, 2018|website=Core to Commencement}} His wife, Barbara Bruce Jackson, retired as chair of the English department at Blind Brook High School in Rye Brook, New York. Married in 1962, they reside in New York City and suburban Westchester County.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/09/nyregion/public-lives-behind-the-drawl-a-real-new-york-know-it-all.html|title=PUBLIC LIVES; Behind the Drawl, a Real New York Know-It-All|first=John|last=Kifner|work=The New York Times |date=May 9, 2001|via=NYTimes.com}}

===Books===

• {{Hanging indent |text={{cite book |date=1967 |chapter= |chapter-url= |title=The Ku Klux Klan in the City, 1915–1930 |url=https://archive.org/details/kukluxklanincity00jack/page/n5/mode/2up |url-access=registration |series=The Urban Life in America Series |language=en-US |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=May 10, 2021 |via=Internet Archive }}{{space|1}}{{LCCN|6728129}}, {{OCLC|164461230|show=all}} }}
• Cities in American History (1972) ISBN 978-0394311470
• Atlas of American History (1980) ISBN 978-0684150529
• Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (1985) ISBN 978-0195036107
• Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (1989) ISBN 978-0910413220
• Dictionary of American Biography Volume 9 (1994) ISBN 978-0684193984
• American Vistas (1995) ISBN 978-0195087833
• The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn (1998) ISBN 978-0300077520
• The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives (1998) ISBN 978-0684804927
• Empire City: New York Through the Centuries (2002) ISBN 978-0231109086
• Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (2007) ISBN 978-0393732061
• The Almanac of New York City (2008) ISBN 978-0231140638
• The Encyclopedia of New York City (2010) ISBN 978-0300114652

• Jackson, K. T. (1996). All the world's a mall: Reflections on the social and economic consequences of the American shopping center. The American Historical Review, 101(4), 1111-1121.
• Jackson, K. T. (2000). Gentleman’s agreement: discrimination in metropolitan America. Reflections on regionalism, 185-217.
• Jackson, K. T. (2005). The Road to Hell: The United States, Japan, and the Evolution of National Patterns of Transport and Suburban Housing. In Proceedings of the Kyoto American Studies Summer Seminar, 93-110.
• Jackson, K. T. (2007). Asher B. Durand’s New York: The Life of the City in the Nineteenth Century. Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape.
• Jackson, K. T. (2008). Robert Moses and the rise of New York The power broker in perspective. Robert Moses and the modern city: the transformation of New York.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://history.columbia.edu/person/jackson-kenneth-t/: Kenneth T. Jackson bio]{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• [http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/jackson_kenneth.html Kenneth T. Jackson] - New York State Writers Institute
• [https://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/jackson.htm PBS: Interview with Kenneth T. Jackson]
• {{IMDb name|413738}}
• {{C-SPAN|41980}}

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Category:1939 births

Category:Academics from Memphis, Tennessee

Category:Living people

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Historians of New York City

Category:Urban historians

Category:Bancroft Prize winners

Category:University of Memphis alumni

Category:University of Chicago alumni