Jackson was also a member of the National Science Board and a past president of the Association of Black Psychologists.
He attended Michigan State University with the intention of becoming an engineer, but he found himself interested in psychology after being exposed to an introductory course on the subject.
He was part of a group that disrupted the APA presidential address of George Armitage Miller in order to bring attention to the needs of black psychology students.
[8] The same year, Jackson finished his second five-year term as director of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research; he was succeeded by economist David Lam.
[11] He received the 2006 James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science and delivered the keynote address at the organization's annual convention in 2012.