Georgetown Scholar to Lead Exploration of Black Washington for D.C. Government - Higher Education

Georgetown Scholar to Lead Exploration of Black Washington for D.C. Government - Higher Education: WASHINGTON – One might plausibly argue that Dr. Maurice Jackson, a Georgetown University history professor and longtime Washington, D.C., resident, has been destined to write a detailed history on African-Americans in the nation’s capital.

It turns out the former community activist and organizer who toiled for more than a decade in the city’s Black low-income and working class neighborhoods before becoming a professor has been diligently at work on “Halfway to Freedom: A History of the African-American Peoples in Washington, D.C.,” a book Jackson expects will fill a major void in scholarship on D.C. history.

What’s been less predictable for Jackson is that his visibility as a local scholar speaking publicly and writing about African-Americans in Washington has led to an unexpected opportunity. In July, Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray appointed Jackson to chair the city’s first-ever District of Columbia Commission on African American Affairs.