Jesse Jackson’s granddaughter Skye continues family legacy of activism

Skye Jackson is a rising senior at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. She is an active student, serving as co-president of the Black Student Association and president of another diversity club called Spectrum. She is also the granddaughter of civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson. Skye tells Yahoo Life that if you scratch beneath the surface at her elite boarding school you’ll find an atmosphere where racism runs deep. “Many times it was just normal for students to be in blackface kind of at all school events and no teachers, no administrations, no faculty, no staff, um, would say something. And if there were those couple faculty and staff members who would say something, um, nothing was done about it," Skye says.

Video Transcript

SKYE JACKSON: Some of the challenges that I have specifically faced are about my hair, assumptions made about me based on my culture, based on being mixed race. And that needs to change.

I attend Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. And I am a rising senior. Coming from Chicago to Alexandria, Virginia definitely was a challenge, leaving home, you're just trying to learn. And also it's different being a person of color going into a predominately white institution.

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Since our school was founded in 1839, so our school has deep roots in slavery, Jim Crow, the KKK, a lot of different southern Confederate roots. When some schools like my school don't own up to the accountability factor that is necessary when you go to such an old school, that can kind of create alienation and a divide between the students.

So Black at EHS is an Instagram account that I started because I read an article in "The New York Times" about Black students at predominately white institutions, specifically boarding schools as well, using social media to expose racism at their schools. And so this article kind of touched me. And I was like, oh, you know, my school also has the same exact problems.

So I talked to my best friend, Amy John-Terry. We said, all right, let's start a page. We've received immense support from alumni and a few private supporters, from teachers and faculty members, and current students as well. Now, the first two to three days, we received about 15 kind of racist and fake submissions to demean the page. And that was extremely upsetting because the things that we're talking about on the page are not personal to anyone. It's really just so that the administration can change.

Many times, it was just normal for students to be in blackface, kind of at all school events. The last kind of incident that I'm aware of was in 2017. So hopefully with this creation of the influx of "Black at" pages, hopefully that will kind of spark some accountability and on to school, and to say, hey, look, you know, we've made some decisions in the past that were horrible. And we're looking to move forward and make it a safer place, physically and emotionally, for students.

I don't want another Black female to come onto campus and feel the way that I felt. There are so many beautiful connections that I've made along the way, and many teachers that I've met that I absolutely adore, and that I've learned so, so much from. Academically, it's been a rock for me. And I just decided to make the decision to, instead of transferring schools or coming back to Chicago, to just push through, persevere, and say, OK, this is my role on campus. And if other people don't agree with me, I'm still going to be the person who I'm going to be.

I've been to about four protests this summer, and each one has been awesome. I think that the Black Lives Matter symbolizes youth, and it symbolizes the young people in the US and around the world making a change.

He's just taught me how to have a vision, how to actually go for it, and just to not be afraid. This is kind of what I've stuck with since starting this whole "Black at" page. Yes, it is about me, but the work that I'm doing now is more about the others. We can say, hey, look this is not how things are going to work anymore. And regardless of the type of racism that is directed at students, it is racism. And it needs to change.