Edgar Jackson spent most of his childhood in Arkansas before moving to Cleveland, Ohio as a teenager. One of the lasting impressions from his childhood came from watching the only black doctor in Rison, Arkansas attend to Dr. Jackson's ailing mother, an event that made him determined to become a doctor. In Cleveland, Dr. Jackson went on to earn his bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University. In 1966, he graduated from Case's School of Medicine "one of the first black students to do so" after serving as class president during each school year. After spending a brief period at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Dr. Jackson began working at University Hospitals in 1973 and would spend the remainder of his career there. During this period, he dedicated his time towards improving diversity in the medical field. This goal was carried out through projects such as the Janice Douglas-David Satcher Clerkship and the Edgar B. Jackson Jr., MD Endowed Chair for hiring minorities. Additionally, Dr. Jackson also worked to address health disparities among racial minorities, especially among those who are black. Even after his third retirement in 2010, Dr. Jackson continued to promote diversity in medicine. He served as the co-chair of an initiative between Cleveland State University and Northeast Ohio Medical University whose goal is the recruitment and grooming of a diverse group to become the next generation of physicians.
The Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Papers, 1951-2019 and undated, consist of certificates, a class memory book, event programs, letters, medical magazines and pamphlets, a music album, newspaper articles, online articles, personal and professional ephemera, photos, printouts of PowerPoint presentations, a scrapbook, speeches, and a yearbook.
This collection will be useful to anyone who wishes to learn about northeast Ohio's attempts to diversify medicine. It includes photos and informational packets regarding Dr. Jackson's establishment of the Janice Douglas-David Satcher Clerkship, whose purpose is to give racial minorities the opportunity to work in academic medical centers. Additionally, photos and pamphlets concerning the Edgar B. Jackson Jr., MD Endowed Chair, a fund used to promote hiring more minorities, can help researchers study the attempts to create a more heterogeneous workforce in the medical field in the Cleveland area. Dr. Jackson's speeches, PowerPoint printouts, and event programs can also provide valuable information to people who are studying work that has gone towards reducing health disparities among minorities.
The Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Papers collection is arranged in five series: Series I: Education: Case Western Reserve University Records; Series II: Career; Series III: Speeches and Presentations; Series IV: Professional Achievements and Certificates; and Series V: Personal Items. Each series is arranged by document type then chronologically.
Processed by Desmond Bolden in 2020.
[Container__, Folder__ ] MS 5469 Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Dr. Edgar B. Jackson in 2019.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.