Inez Jackson

Both Milan and Mr. Henry Gage Sr. spoke very highly of Ms. Inez Jackson.  Inez Jackson was church secretary for thirty-five years at the Antioch Baptist Church, across the street from the AACSA.  She and Mr. Gage Sr. were both members of the church and are both founders of the AACSA, as she was the person who discovered the vacant firehouse. 

San Jose Mercury January 5, 1959

In 1944, Ms. Inez Jackson gave up her job and life in segregated Oklahoma to move West where her husband was working on the shipyards.  All that she had heard was how California was free of discrimination.  Ms. Jackson was formerly working in a segregated school in Oklahoma and wanted to become a math teacher once she arrived in San Jose.  When she got to the school board they told her, "We don't allow Negroes to teach school." They offered her a job scrubbing the floors instead.  

"People had always talked about segregation in the South, but this was worse. California wasn’t supposed to be segregated and it wasn’t- they just eliminated a group of people. It was as if Blacks didn’t exist."- Inez Jackson

Ms. Jackson took the only job she could, which was picking prunes and working in the canneries.  Eventually, Ms. Jackson became San Jose's first black postal clerk along with many other accomplishments over the next forty-four years.  She also became the first black president of the YWCA, which is one of the largest and oldest women's organizations in the United States and one of the founders of the AACSA.     

“She is a backbone. One of the pillars of the San Jose community"- Former President of NAACP