Ida O. Jackson

She came to Clovis in 1926 after failing to find a teaching job in Waco, Texas, and the school that took her name outlived the segregation it served. The Alphon Street campus behind this panel opened in 1938 as Clovis's school for Black children, and new buildings went up from 1952. After the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation decision the board ended Lincoln-Jackson's high school classes and sent those students to the city's other schools, and the campus became an elementary school for all. Its buildings joined the National Register in 2017 and house the Lincoln-Jackson Family Center.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Ida O. Jackson Educator (1890-1960) Clovis schools were segregated when Ida O. Jackson arrived from Texas in 1926 to teach African-American youth. Starting with two students in Bethlehem Baptist Church, she encouraged early education and by 1935 taught 35 students in a one-room schoolhouse. Named the Lincoln-Jackson School to honor her and the nation's sixteenth president, school enroll- ment topped 100 by the 1940's. Ida also taught Sunday school, opened her home to those need- ing housing, and helped launch the Federated Progressive Club for black women working to improve the community. Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackwater Draw — 10 mi
  The site between Clovis and Portales that gave the Clovis culture its name, found by a nineteen-year-old in 1929 and dug for decades inside a working gravel pit.

More markers nearby

• Norman Petty Recording Studios Clovis — 1.1 mi
• Clovis — 8.4 mi
• Blackwater Draw — 10 mi
• Rose Powers White — 10 mi