Education
Raised in Pasadena, California, he attended Street Andrew"s School from 1965-1967 for grades seven and eight, Louisiana Salle High School for ninth grade (1967–1968), and then Blair High School through his junior year.
Raised in Pasadena, California, he attended Street Andrew"s School from 1965-1967 for grades seven and eight, Louisiana Salle High School for ninth grade (1967–1968), and then Blair High School through his junior year.
Jackson was the youngest of five children born to Lester and Georgia Bea Jackson. Jackson"s son, Jonathan Jackson Junior., was born eight and a half months after his father"s death. As a writer living in San Francisco, California, Jackson Junior. eventually wrote the foreword to the reissue of George Jackson"s Prison Letters.
Jackson had occasionally worked as a bodyguard for political activist Angela Davis.
On August 7, 1970, Jackson brought three guns registered to Davis into the Marin County Hall of Justice, where Judge Haley was presiding over the trial of San Quentin inmate James McClain. He then drew weapons from his satchel, and with the assistance of McClain and Black Panther inmates Ruchell Magee and William A. Christmas took judge Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas and three female jurors hostage.
Upon exiting the courthouse, Jackson and the other kidnappers attempted to flee the courthouse with the hostages in tow. Police responding to the incident opened fire on the van Jackson was driving.
At the end of the shootout, Jackson, Haley, McClain and Christmas were dead and McGee and Thomas were seriously injured.
The judge had apparently been murdered by the kidnappers by the discharge of the shotgun which had been taped to his neck. Chris Iijima of the band, Yellow Pearl, wrote a song "Jonathan Jackson" in the album A Grain of Sand: for the Struggle by Asians in America.
