Vera Jackson

(Wichita, Kansas, 1911 - 1999, Corona, California)

North America, American

In the late 1940s, Vera Jackson covered entertainment and news stories for the African American community of South Los Angeles as a staff photographer for the California Eagle. She moved from Wichita, Kansas, to a farm in Corona, California, as a teenager, graduated high school in 1930 and married the next year. A government-sponsored community-education class introduced her to the basics of photography, and in the late 1930s she enrolled in the Frank Wiggins Trade School photography program. Jackson got her start at the Eagle shooting celebrities and important community members for society editor Jessie Mae Brown. She later worked with publisher Charlotta Bass, a leader in the Los Angeles civil rights movement, photographing protests at city hall. Jackson became a frequent contributor to the letter section of the Los Angeles Times, expressing her views on civil rights. At her husband’s urging, Jackson gave up photojournalism for a career in teaching, earning a BA in education from the University of California Los Angeles in 1952 and an MA from University of Southern California in 1954. Jackson taught in the Los Angeles Public School District from 1951 to 1976, but continued to contribute to publications such as Black Angelenos, Travel and Art and Design as a freelancer. Her work has been exhibited at the UCLA Gallery, the Riverside Art Museum, the Black Gallery of Los Angeles, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

California, United States

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