“As I Come to a Close”

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores Joseph H. Jackson’s swift declension toward irrelevance after Martin Luther King’s assassination and his virtual anonymity in the final years of his life. Three cities will frame the telling of the final chapter of Jackson’s life, each of which will have a year attached to it to mark its significance to Jackson’s life and ministry: Chicago 1966, Memphis 1968, and Miami 1982. This chapter will also catalogue the renaming of the street in front of Olivet Baptist Church on account of his feud with King, his loss of the presidency of the National Baptist Convention in 1982 to T. J. Jemison, and his death in 1990.