Remembering Rosemary Jackson
Life of a Camden activist will be celebrated Saturday
Rosemary Jackson was a tireless activist and peerless advocate -- whether the cause was women in West Africa, or students in East Camden. I respected the former city school board president, whom I wrote about while covering Camden in the 1990s. And I was saddened to hear that she had passed away, at age 66, in January.
But Rosemary's fiery and fiercely intelligent spirit will be in the house Saturday, March 29 as friends and family celebrate her "life journeys" from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy, in Camden.
"Rosemary gave money, time, spirit, and fire," says Mangaliso Davis, a veteran Camden activist who knew and worked with Jackson for 25 years. "Even when she was in the hospital, she was trying to get up, thinking she had to go do something for the people."
A city native who rose to prominence in the late 1980s, Jackson was involved with local, state, national and international women's organizations. "Rose travelled the world to advocate for women," Davis notes.
At Saturday's event, he plans to play a voicemail from Jackson, urging him to attend a demonstration. "She says, 'Mango, I can't go, but I need you to go down there and represent.'"
Sounds like the Rosemary I knew.
--
KEVIN RIORDAN