Harold Jackson

Harold Jackson is the editor of the editorial page. He became deputy editor of The Inquirer's Editorial Page in 2004, after being cooordinator of the newspaper's zoned daily commentary and Sunday Voices pages.

Jackson has also been an editorial writer at the Baltimore Sun and the Birmingham (Ala.) News. While at the News, he and two colleagues won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1991 for a series on changing Alabama's tax system. He also worked for United Press International and the Birmingham Post-Herald.

Email Harold at hjackson@phillynews.com

Birmingham, Ala., firefighters turn their hoses full force on civil rights demonstrators. The scene in 1963 became a permanent image of the fight for civil rights.

The memories of a black child in Birmingham

I was insulated from much of what happened, but witnessed flashes of racial hatred - and the response.

By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

02/24/2013

Harold Jackson: Has it really been 50 years?

1 p.m. Monday online chat: Harold Jackson on Obama
Smerconish: If Obama wins
Jackson: An abortion foe

Too often, Philly buries its talent 07/13/2012: Harold Jackson

After living in this region more than 15 years, I find myself agreeing with those Philadelphia natives who fear their hometown will never reach its full potential. Of course, being Philadelphians, they will say it's OK for them to say that, but not some guy from Alabama. Nonetheless, I look at Philadelphia and think of the Parable of the Talents that Jesus told to his disciples. Found in the Book of Matthew, it goes something like this:
Glorified on TV, they weren't the good old days 04/20/2012: Harold Jackson

Growing up in Birmingham, Ala., I never thought I would do what I did last week, which is stay at the Tutwiler Hotel while I was in town for a retirement party. Back then it wasn’t so much that the Tutwiler was segregated, which it was when I was a child in the 1950s and ’60s, as it was that any hotel would be too costly for my family. Then, too, we didn’t own a car or take vacations, so who needed a hotel?
Recalling a school closing that opened a new world 01/15/2012: By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

The worst thing that can happen to a teenager is seeing his high school close the summer before his senior year.
Two coaching departures 11/13/2011: Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant left amid rumblings that it was time for him to go. Unlike Joe Paterno, he left on his own terms.

By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

Harold Jackson: The firing of Penn State's Joe Paterno brought back memories of another old coach who went out not in a blaze of glory, but after many disenchanted fans were ready to usher him out the door.
The class warfare to fear is that stirred by poverty 09/25/2011: By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

Growing up poor isn't so bad. Most poor kids don't even notice it, since it's unlikely that their friends and neighbors are doing any better. But being accustomed to poverty doesn't excuse its existence.
Monument fit for a King 08/28/2011: First person of color honored on the Mall.

By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

Like most people, I get too much mail from groups asking for donations. Most of it is discarded, but not the request I received to help fund the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, which was opened to the public last week.
A model of grace falls far 07/24/2011: By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

Chris McNair is in prison. Those words can't help but sadden many people, especially African Americans, who lived in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s.
For some, anything but status quo 05/22/2011: As Street finds victory in loss, his brother may feel encouraged to seek old office.

By Harold Jackson, Editor of the Editorial Page

The 24 percent of the vote that ex-convict T. Milton Street Sr. got in the Democratic mayoral primary Tuesday was significant, but it sounds more impressive than it actually was, given the dismal 18 percent turnout.
That worrisome trade deficit 05/02/2007: The problem is, we buy more goods than we sell, and we borrow to make up the difference.

Inquirer Staff

'Now, don't you worry your pretty little head about that" always seems to be the retort of the economics literati when the economically stupid start asking questions about the U.S. trade deficit.
Under the Sun: Fix violence by fixing prisons 05/02/2007: Inquirer Staff

There are several schools of thought on the best way to reduce the violence in Philadelphia that resulted in more than 400 murders last year.