Jacqueline L. Jackson

When Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. was sentenced to federal prison for financial misdeeds in 2013, his mother, Jacqueline L. Jackson, promised to write him a letter every day for the duration of his thirty-month sentence. She kept her promise. The composite of her epistolary devotion, Loving You, Thinking of You, Don’t Forget to Pray: Letters to My Son in Prison, is a selection of letters filled with glimpses of home, musings from life in the Jim Crow South, and, above all, an unwavering commitment to her love and a promise that things would get better. Jackson Jr. writes of the book, “My mother, through her letters, sustained me through my darkest hour. She reminded me of the power of love, the power of mercy, and the power of forgiveness.” This Friday, Jacqueline L. Jackson is joined by her son for a reading and discussion at Quail Ridge Books, moderated by family friend April Smith. —Sarah Edwards