Thomas Francis Jackson, III

Member

CLASS REUNION BIOGRAPHY
REQUESTED BY THE TAFT SCHOOL IN SUPPORT OF
TAFT SCHOOL MOTTO:
"NOT TO BE SERVED, BUT TO SERVE."

Following graduation from college, I was commissioned an Ensign in the U. S. Navy and assigned in June, 1962, to various intelligence agencies in Washington, DC. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations I worked with ONI, DIA, CIA and NSA, all with respect to the collection and analysis of intelligence data and cross-checking and conferring with all intelligence agencies before presentation of recommendations to the Executive Branch. Initially, we considered the analysis of the threat, position and strength, posed by our discovery of the Cuban Missiles, then Viet Nam and the participation of the People’s Republic of China. And, of course, President Johnson responded domestically with Civil Rights legislation following the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King’s speech. During those years, the City of Washington was abuzz with change concerning our country’s military operations and recognition of civil rights as well as maintaining the balance of power during The Cold War. My last military assignment was with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in order to evaluate personnel performance and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, both designed to detect a possible breach by an adversary with an intentional, clandestine troop/weapons change, as a basis to protect our country’s interest in successfully negotiating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

After graduating from law school and taking the Tennessee Bar, I returned to Memphis to clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert McRae, an ardent supporter of Judge Benjamin Hooks, the first African-American Judge in the South serving in a Court of General Jurisdiction, and lately awarded the Medal of Freedom after having served as the Chairman of the FCC and NAACP. Judge McRae suggested that I attend with Judge Hooks an afternoon Memphis Bar Association reception held on April 4, 1968, atop The Claridge Hotel, Memphis, overlooking City Hall Plaza. Suddenly, the U.S. Marshal closed the reception when notified of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in South Memphis, several blocks away. Almost immediately the City mandated a curfew, and the government protected its citizens by The National Guard while The Federal Courts in Memphis resolved the differences that brought Dr. King to Memphis.

Forty years of private practice of law in Memphis, both with large firms and now solo, have led me to consumer advocacy to protect persons in the middle of our society who do not qualify for legal aid or cannot otherwise afford an attorney to redress consumer complaints, e.g., breach of warranty, identity theft, false credit reporting.

I currently serve as a Director of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis Housing Corporation, which operates some fifteen retirement homes in West Tennessee, where I periodically speak and inform residents of current matters of interest . I attend St. John's Episcopal Church where I am a Lay Eucharistic Minister. And I am an official member of The Memphis St. Jude Club and involved ad hoc in supporting the mission and work of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. My consumer advocacy and volunteer work with the Diocese, the Episcopal Church and St. Jude seem to be an extension of our school’s motto and make my life, after all these years, extremely rewarding without any expectation of any return.