 Jackson was born in Birmingham, Alabama.He grew up in a segregated society and spent part of his childhood in Dynamite Hill, an area in Birmingham that the Ku Klux Klan frequently bombed during the Civil rights movement.His father, a Tuskegee University graduate, owned the Apex Cab Company and also taught auto mechanics at Parker High School, whilst his mother, a Santa Barbara Junior High School graduate, worked for the US Government.