described by William and Charles Mayo, the founders of the Mayo Clinic, as “the most able Negro surgeon in America” was murdered by a mob during the Tulsa, Oklahoma, riots of 1921. Jackson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Townsend (sometimes given as Talgris) and Sophronia Jackson, and grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma. His middle name was either Christian or Chester.
Townsend Jackson, a police officer in Memphis, fled the city with his family as a mob targeted their home in 1889. Just in time for the Oklahoma land rush that year, he settled in Guthrie, where he was a justice of the peace, a barber, and a police officer. Townsend Jackson owned the family home. In 1900, Andrew Jackson and his older brother also named Townsend worked as porters while their older sister Minnie taught school The neighborhood where ...
