Professor of African American Studies & Theatre, Northwestern University  / Sandra Richards (colleague)
Always curious about the seemingly ordinary, quick to find meaning therein, and delivering his insights through often hilarious, captivating stories. A gentleman and scholar who “fought the good fight” for AAAS. These are some of my fond memories of Kennell Jackson. Close

Hampton Scholar  / Kitola Pleasants-Henderson (Hampton Classmate )

Outspoken and articulate, well-read and thus knowledgable, witty with a sense of humor, tremendous insight; this was Kennell Jackson as a freshman at Hampton when we first became friends.  Kennell was the person you wanted to critique your paper because you knew he had the talent, but most of all you knew he would help you and give it to you straight.  I will always remember how he admonished me for waiting until after I had returned late from a party to ask for help. At 18, Kennell was focused when others were not.  After graduation we lost touch for over 25 years, but he was never forgotten; no one who knew Kennell could forget him.  So I was elated to 'find' him again and we started an infrequent email exchange.  I will miss him, but thankful we found each other again. 

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I miss Kennell.  / Chuck Despres (Swim Buddy )

Kennell could start with the day's NY Times story that most interested him, tie it into a social critique of deep passion, and buttress the critique with a biblical story that bore relevance; because he lived the notion of what we used to call "socially relevant" educating, without in any way diminishing his own habits of high academic rigor and  his respect for the ideals of "the academy".

In addition, he was an accomplished and practiced long-distance swimmer.

We had some great talks (and laughs) at the pool,
as well as at the Peninsula Creamery lunch counter--one of his off-campus "hang outs".

He also would visit when I worked at the "UNICEF
Store". He totally charmed the UNICEF ladies!

His wit could be hilariously subtle.

Kennell loved teaching. He was so gifted at it.
And he was a passionate and loving man.

Passion. Integrity. Compassion.

I miss him. 

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Hello Dearheart  / Ken Farbstein (Serra 1976-77 )
The face of Stanford was you. Close

Prof. Jackson helped me grow from a child to a man  / James Keipp (Advisee 1987-1990 )
It is with great sadness that I write this...Prof. Jackson, as my Afro-Am & History advisor, made me to begin to contemplate the world as a man, no longer as a chils trying to get by. He actually encouraged me to write a senior thesis on "Black Hair." Unfortunately, I didn't take on his challenge, but I like to think I have done well in his eyes. I am a history professional and a grateful student and person to have known him. Close

Great mentor and friend  / Christy Boscardin (Research Assistant '94-'95 )

Kennell was a man of great generosity and intellect. One of the most profound graduate school experience for me was working with Kennell on his book "America is Me". His zest for life was an inspiration and will be sorely missed.

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A great teacher who resparked my interest in black history  / Marin Heiskell (former student )
He always encouraged me to dig deeper and ask more questions.  He always had an open door to his students and residents.  One of the most memorable professors I ever had.  God bless Kennell Jackson! Close

Solid as a rock  / Nancy NEAHER Maas (Ph.D. student, 1968-76 )
Thanks for perhaps the finest intellectual experience of my life. Your blending of history and anthropology was truly innovative at the time and served as a model for my career in teaching and research. Couple that with your open curiosity and commitment to let the "facts" go where they might -- without prejudice: no student could ask for more. Farewell, Kennell. Close

Life with Kennell  / Eric Jackson (Branner RA ('87-'88) and Friend )
The thing I always enjoyed about Kennell was that he was so full of life and so spirited.  Yes, he was quirky and occasionally temperamental, but always so full of life and never, ever boring.  I learned more in the year that I spent as one of Kennell's RAs in Branner than I did at any other time during my Stanford career. 

I had the good fortune of having the RA room that was closest to Kennell's apartment.  On an almost daily basis, he would call up to me and invite me to come down and talk with him about the events of the day, life at Stanford, and the black experience.  He became both a father and mentor to me.  I cherished our interactions and came to depend upon his tough love and wisdom.  I credit Kennell with igniting a passion within me for learning and always striving to excel.  As an RA, I soon learned that if  it wasn't done with excellence, then it wasn't good enough for Kennell!  He demanded and always expected the best out of me.  For that, I am eternally grateful.

After my time at Stanford, Kennell and I remained friends.  When I got married, he flew out to Washington and treated me and my wife, Tanisha to dinner at the Tabard Inn.  I don't remember what we ate that evening but I remember the wonderful conversation punctuated with gales of laughter.  Although more than ten years had passed since my time as an RA, on that evening at the Tabard Inn, it was as only days had passed since I had last seen Kennell.

I was blessed to visit with Kennell in the hospital and it was remarkable to me that he still took time to care about others even while he was preparing for the ultimate journey himself.  He tenderly asked a gentleman who was visiting his friend (who shared a hospital room with Kennell) how he was doing.  It was classic Kennell.  Caring, loving and inquisitive.

I will miss spending time with Kennell but I am so thankful to God for the time he allowed all of us to have with him.  Kennell literally touched thousands of lives and through his life, he has had a global impact.  While I am saddened that he is not with us in body, I know that his spirit will live on in us forever.  Most importantly, I rejoice that he has reached that place where sorrow is no more.

I will see you in Heaven, Kennell. 
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If you would like to make a donation  / Casey Ward (Student)
Here is the link to Doctors Without Borders, as mentioned in the Stanford News... https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/sd/donorcustom.asp?c=foIJKQMFF&b=99839 Take care, Casey Close

A great man, truly missed  / Casey Ward (student)
An amazing teacher and mentor - I was fortunate enough to take Prof. Jackson's 1999 East African Fiction seminar, and could still recite the syllabus to you. He led amazing discussions, always had a wonderful book to loan from his office, and put up with the craziness of Branner when I doubt anyone else could of. Thank you, sir, for all your wisdom and gifts to our community. Close

dslingerland@ypiusa.-org / Dixon Slingerland (student)
I don't think I'd be in the career I'm in if it weren't for Kennell, and the summer spent researching inner-city poverty. Close

A selfless individual and mentor  / Sean Kennedy (Former student )

I had Professor Jackson for Intro to African History back in '95. Also attended his African cultural seminar. After graduation (int'l relations, '96), I spent 5 years working in Africa as a volunteer, student and humanitarian worker.

When I returned from Africa, I applied for grad school. At least two other Stanford Africanist professors refused to write me a recommendation. Kennell, even though he did not remember me, did agree to write me a recommendation, and he provided me with a lengthy, glowing review of my accomplishments. I was overwhelmed at his warmth and generosity. Kennell was a model professor, and an inspiration. Stanford (and the world) needs more professors like him. Close

The Amy Biehl Foundation  / Devin Tanner (student)

KENNELL JACKSON was primarily responsible, with his Stanford colleagues, for awakening Amy's interest in Africa, its history and potential. Dr. Jackson was advisor to Amy on her Honors Thesis in her final year at Stanford. He spoke at Amy's memorial service in Newport Beach and was a principal organizer of the Stanford University memorial service.

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One of the LAst Black Men who Worked to keep Black History RELEVANT to our times....  / Otelia Marshall (mentee)

I am in total shock. I just lost my brother a few weekends ago and today I open my benign Stanford alumni email to find one of my most influential teacher/mentor has died nearly a month ago. Anger and sadness fuel my tears.

Well, the History department and the entire university just lost a genius and not one of its win a Pulitzer, then stump for Southern California fundraising alumni events geniuses either. A REAL black man who contextualized black issues in a way that was oh! so relevant for our times. He challenged the black bourgeois status quo and was effortlessly able to in his pedagogy – to transverse the Diaspora. So many times in his classes on East Africa I forgot we weren’t still contextually wrestling with the same issues as in America.

 

He was so approachable, so there as a teacher as a friend. He was so cognizant of the difficulties that lay ahead for students – particularly black and minority students; the countries future “intellectuals”. It was like he was our backbone, because he knew that at 19, 20 we couldn’t be ready.

 

He was so fucking real! Incoming students wont find that in most minority professors desperate for their piece of the Stanford “tenure pie.” He taught about black hair, black names, and the word nigga – years before Gates and others jumped on the bandwagon – and that was just while I was there. He wasn’t afraid to tell students or Stanford to shut the hell, up, sit the hell down and listen.

Some real talk he once gave me on the word “nigga” during our research together for African American naming.  He said eventually, it would loose its cache for young blacks, but ironically only when it did so for whites. And then classically, he summed it up in a way that ONLY Kennell ever could:

 

“When the word meant something, nobody gave a damn about how and where it’s used and now that it doesn’t mean a damn thing, everybody – black and white - is a huff about it.”

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Chocolate chip cookie night  / Mike Conte (Branner 86-87 )
My main memory of Kennell is of him in a white apron: once a week in Branner he would open up his apartment to us homesick kids and bake us chocolate chip cookies. Looking back as an adult, I can see how hard Kennell worked to build community, and beyond that to blur the lines between community and family. Close

reminiscences of a great teacher  / Larry Rothfield (Serra resident 1974-76 )

Although I never took a class with Kennell, he was by far the most influential teacher I had at Stanford. He provided many of us, and certainly me, with a marvellous model of lively intellectual engagement. At once relaxed, funny, and probing, he brought out the best in us, in long conversations late at night in the lounge, or while making chocolate mousse in his apartment on the ground floor of Serra. To be made aware of one's naivete with the sigh, "dear heart", or to be warned with a shake of the head, on the verge of entering graduate school, that grad students were "dull and arrogant, dull and arrogant", was to learn gentle lessons taught in an unforgettably personal and personable way.

I have gone on to become a professor myself, thanks in no small part to Kennell, and, also thanks to his example, I now live in a residence hall as resident master. I owe him more than I can say, and will always remember him with affectionate reverence.

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Wasn't it just the other day...?  / Chisara Asomugha (Student, c/o '98 )

Several days ago, for no reason in particular, I remembered Professor Jackson and his history class on African studies that I took as a Junior at Stanford.  I thought about how he coaxed me into participating in my first debate on the impact of colonialism in Africa.  So nervous was I that to this day I still do not remember what I said, but I do remember what he told me afterwards and the sincerity in which he said it.  "...I knew you had it in you."   Suffice it to say, I won the debate, and his words afterwards were humbling and encouraging.  A week later I was invited over to his place at Branner with several other students where we ate dinner and discussed a broad range of topics.  He listened to us and engaged us in such a way that you knew your opinion mattered and was worth hearing. 

Imagine then, my thoughts, as I opened my email today and learned of his passing.  And I thought, "Was I not just thinking about him the other day?"  People come and go in your life; some stay but for a brief moment yet make a lasting impression.  Because of him, I realize that every encounter, no matter how big or small, exists for a purpose and I know his purpose in my life has been fulfilled and will not be forgotten.

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Goodbye Kennell  / Vivian Low (Nurse and friend, El Camino Hospital Pulmonary Rehab Program )
Kennell was a very private person, and one who did not want to burden others with personal issues.  But for all of you who loved him, I thought you might like to know something about what he kept to himself in his final years and days.  Kennell came to our pulmonary rehab program in 2001 with an idiopathic pulmonary disease for which there is no cure and the exact cause unknown.  He had lived with progressive symptoms for about 5 years when he entered our program.  The only option was to maximize medical therapy and rehab to improve quality of life and to consider a lung transplant.  We had several conversations as he contemplated whether to put himself on the lung transplant list.  His concerns were two fold.  He had philosophical issues with whether he should be considered more worthy than another human being to have a lung that someone else might need more.  Kennell was very positive about the life he had been given and his experiences.  He pondered whether he had any right to ask for more than that.  I tried several times to get Kennell to accept the impact he could continue having on the world as a professor with so much knowledge and ability to broaden people's horizons.  He would reluctantly agree but not for very long.  Secondly, he knew the recovery from lung transplant would leave him disabled and dependent for a period of time.  Despite reassurances that there were so many who would consider it an honor to help him, Kennell could not bring himself to be comfortable about having to bother people.  His goal was always to lead and to teach, not to be burdensome.  He choose to fight his battle privately, lived years beyond what was expected for his condition, and remained independent....  his own man.    It was our pleasure to have him as a part of our program.  He frequently stirred the political pot in group discussions and always insisted on getting things right.  We will miss him very much.  Kennel was consistent to the end .... intellectual, decided, humble, and generous. Close

Goodbye to a Friend  / Valicia Saucedo (Branner Resident '01-'02 )
I don't know quite how to say goodbye to you, Kennell. It was always such a privilege to be invited into your home, to have long conversations with you about all of the things that would become my passions at Stanford: voting rights and civic engagement. I will remember those conversations always. Thank you so much for everything. Branner will simply never be the same without you. Close