Z. Maurice Jackson

Z. Maurice Jackson teaches in the History and African American Studies Departments at Georgetown University and is an Affiliated Professor of Music (Jazz). Before entering academia, he worked as a longshoreman, shipyard rigger, construction worker, and community organizer—experiences that inform his scholarship on labor, abolition, and African American history.

Professor Jackson is the author of Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism, and co-editor of African-Americans and the Haitian Revolution; Quakers and Their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause, 1754–1808; and DC Jazz: Stories of Jazz Music in Washington, DC. He also wrote the liner notes for two jazz albums by Charlie Haden and Hank Jones: Steal Away: Spirituals, Folk Songs and Hymns and Come Sunday.

He has lectured internationally in France, Turkey, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Qatar, and served on the Georgetown University Slavery Working Group. A 2009 inductee into the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame, he was appointed by the Mayor and the D.C. Council as the inaugural Chair of the DC Commission on African American Affairs (2013–16). In 2017, he presented “An Analysis: African American Employment, Population & Housing Trends in Washington, D.C.” to the Mayor and city leadership.

Professor Jackson is completing Halfway to Freedom: The Struggles and Strivings of African Americans in Washington, DC, forthcoming with Duke University Press. His next books will be We Knew No Other Way: The Many-Sided Struggle for Freedom and Black Radicalism: A Very Short Introduction.

He is the founder and executive director of Cuba Skate, which promotes understanding between US and Cuban youth through the sport of skateboarding.

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