Eileen Jackson Southern (February 19, 1920 – October 13, 2002) was an American musicologist, researcher, author, and teacher.

Eileen Jackson grew up around many musicians in her family; her father was a violinist; an uncle, a trumpetist; and her mother, a choir singer.

In addition, her piano teachers, mostly white, were concerned that she wouldn't know music by black composers and introduced her to R. Nathaniel Dett's In the Bottoms, among other such compositions.

"[4] Jackson attended public schools in her hometown, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and in Chicago, Illinois.

During the same period, she won piano-performance and essay competitions, taught piano lessons, and directed musical activities at the Lincoln Community Center.

Her relationship with Cecil Smith, her master thesis advisor, encouraged her to further develop her interest in Negro folk music.

Southern received a National Humanities Medal in 2001 for having "helped transform the study and understanding of American music.

[8] On August 22, 1942 Eileen Jackson married Joseph Southern, a co-founder of the journal the Black Perspective in Music.