Black Star Project founder, activist honored with renaming of street
On the Juneteenth holiday Saturday, a stretch of 35th Street near Martin Luther King Drive was renamed Phillip Jackson Memorial Parkway in honor of the late creator of the Black Star Project and an iconic figure in Chicago’s Black community.
Jackson founded the Black Star Project in 1996, when he was 43, to address the educational and economic inequities facing Chicago’s Black community. Jackson died in 2018.
Since then, the nonprofit has educated, organized and mobilized through volunteers and community partners to carry out special programs, campaigns and initiatives aimed at closing the racial academic achievement gap of low-income Black and Latino communities. On the South and West sides of Chicago, these communities often face violence, unemployment and low academic achievement.
The organization also works to maintain partnerships with groups like the Goldin Institute, the Monroe Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust.
TBSP’s first two initiatives included the Student Motivation Program and Barbara Ann Sizemore Communiversity for Educational Excellence, which promoted community engagement through dialogue and advocacy. The offerings now include a broad range of services and programs including tutoring, mentorship, advocacy and development, financial literacy, violence prevention, college preparation, school environment support and workforce development.
Born in 1950, Jackson attended 11 different Chicago Public Schools before receiving a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy with honors from Roosevelt University in 1974. He then had a 24-year career with the famed Chicago bookstore chain Kroch’s and Brentano’s.
He also had an assistant director’s role in the Office of Budget and Management for the City of Chicago before joining the Chicago Public Schools. While working at CPS, he became aware of the racial achievement gap, leading him to found TBSP in 1996. He wrote a Chicago Tribune commentary piece in 2013 that laid out some of his ideas about how poor Black and Latino students need greater help in closing the academic gap.
Jackson also became the CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority in 1999, where he advocated for improved public housing conditions. His work as an activist in Chicago emphasized the importance of education for the Black and Latino communities.
“For over 20 years, Phillip invested his talents, strength and leadership back into the South and West side communities. His passion for youth education and empowerment reverberated across generations and his legacy exists both in the Black Star Project and the communities it serves today,” TBSP staff said.
The street renaming is a “beautiful blessing” for those at Black Star, said Justin Douglas, program manager and development director at the organization. “We would not be here today were it not for Phillip’s vision, his tenacity and his determination to uplift and amplify Black experiences.”