Longtime and nationally recognized history professor David H. Jackson, Ph.D., has catapulted his passion for encouraging students to pursue graduate degrees into a new role as associate provost for Graduate Education and dean of Graduate Studies.
Provost Marcella David appointed Jackson to the position earlier this fall. He is responsible for providing leadership and coordinating programs and services to promote the academic success for all graduate students.
David said she is confident that Jackson will continue to make a positive impact on the University in his new leadership role.
“I am looking forward to continuing to build the graduate program under Dr. Jackson’s leadership,” David said. “His many accomplishments as a professor and mentor speak volumes to his dedication to the betterment of students at this University while they strive to achieve academic excellence.”
Jackson received his bachelor of science in history and master’s degree in public administration from FAMU. He went on to obtain his doctoral degree from the University of Memphis.
He joined the FAMU faculty in the fall of 1997. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in three years and full professor of history in the College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities in only seven years. Jackson has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses, and provided leadership as department chair of the Department of History, Political Science, Public Administration, Geography, and African-American Studies for the last 10 years. He has served on and chaired a host of University, college, and departmental committees, including the University’s annual Black History Convocation.
Shortly after he began working at FAMU, Jackson won the Rattler Pride Award for Community Leadership in 2000. He was also the recipient of the FAMU Teacher of the Year Award for 2000 and 2010, and the Advanced Teacher of the Year Award in 2006. He is the 2010 recipient of the FAMU Research Excellence Award, and in April 2011 he was enshrined into the Gallery of Distinction for the former FAMU College of Arts and Sciences (renamed the College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities). He was named as one of FAMU’s “Outstanding Alumni of the Quasiquicentennial” in 2012.
Recognized as one of FAMU’s most published professors, Jackson has published more than four dozen scholarly articles, short essays, and book reviews, and has presented more than 100 scholarly papers and riveting speeches at professional conferences, universities, public schools, prisons, courts, churches, the Florida Legislature, and other venues throughout the United States.
He is author or editor of five scholarly books including “A Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine: Charles Banks of Mississippi,” published in 2002; “Retrieving the American Past,” published in 2003; and “Go Sound the Trumpet: Selections in Florida’s African-American History,” published in 2005. His latest book titled, “Booker T. Washington and the Struggle Against White Supremacy: The Southern Educational Tours, 1908-1912” was published in 2008. He was featured on C-SPAN in 2014 to discuss his book and intimate knowledge of the life of Washington.
Since becoming a professor at FAMU, Jackson has personally mentored and sent more than 30 students off to doctoral programs throughout the country where they have earned doctoral degrees, mainly in history, and are now working as college and university professors. He received the Equity Award from the American Historical Association, the largest historical association in the country, for this accomplishment in 2014.
Jackson said he wants his progression from a hopeful FAMU student to an associate provost and dean to serve as an inspiration to all Rattlers who are striving to achieve greater success within their careers.
“As a graduate student at FAMU in the Master of Applied Social Science Program, I had my first job at the University as a graduate assistant in the School of Graduate Studies and Research under the tutelage of legendary dean, Dr. Charles U. Smith,” Jackson said. “Now, I am elated to have come full circle and to be back as associate provost and dean leading that office. My story should resonate with and demonstrate to all Rattlers that hard work really does pay off, and patience is a virtue.”
