Judge Perry B. Jackson

For educators

Teach his life in one class period

Free to use in grades 8 through 12, in civics, U.S. history and law-related education.

Discussion questions

  1. Jackson was born the year of Plessy and lived past Brown. What changed in between, and what did he do to change it?
  2. He lost his first election after being appointed judge. Why might he have run again?
  3. Why would race-neutral voter registration forms matter in 1928?
  4. The sculptor chose to show him as fair rather than stern. What does a statue of a judge teach people who walk past it?

45-minute lesson

  • 10 min. Read the timeline with national context on. Students mark one row that surprises them.
  • 15 min. Read the 1935 Hollenden story in pairs. Ask: what choices did Jackson, the committee and the hotel each make?
  • 15 min. Look at an archival photo from the Cleveland Public Library or Cleveland State collections linked below. Write a caption for it.
  • 5 min. Exit ticket: one sentence on how one person can change an institution.

Field trip

Classes in Northeast Ohio can visit the statue at the Justice Center, then compare it with the bust of Judge Jackson at the Judge Ben C. Green Law Library at Case Western Reserve University.

Students from Zanesville High School, his alma mater, can apply for a college scholarship in his name.

Vocabulary

Words students will meet

Appointed judge
A judge placed on the bench by a governor or other official, often to finish someone else’s term. Jackson was appointed in 1942.
Unexpired term
The time left on a judge’s term when the seat opens early. The appointee must later win an election to keep it.
Municipal Court
A city court that hears traffic cases, misdemeanors and smaller civil claims.
Court of Common Pleas
Ohio’s county-level trial court for felonies and larger civil cases. Domestic Relations is its family-law division.
Visiting judge
A retired judge assigned by the Ohio Supreme Court to hear cases where help is needed.
Public accommodation
A business open to the public, such as a hotel or restaurant. The Hollenden case was about one.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Supreme Court ruling that allowed “separate but equal” segregation.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Supreme Court ruling that school segregation is unconstitutional.

Analyze a photograph

  1. What do you see first?
  2. Who is in the picture, and what are they doing?
  3. When and why might it have been taken?
  4. What question would you ask the photographer?

Writing prompt

Write a letter Judge Jackson might have sent to a student entering law school in 1960. What would he warn them about? What would he tell them to keep doing?

Primary sources

Photographs from the Cleveland Public Library and Cleveland State University collections work well for the lesson. Find them on the Archive page.