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| Rhett Jackson | |
Very sad news. Former bookseller Rhett Jackson, who was deeply involved in bookseller organizations and was a leader in First Amendment issues, died last Thursday, according to the State. He was 91.
With his wife, Betty, who survives him, Jackson founded the Happy Bookseller in Columbia, S.C., in 1975. In 2003, the Jacksons sold the store to Andy and Carrie Graves, who had met at the Happy Bookseller while working there. The store closed in 2008.
Jackson was president of the American Booksellers Association, a founder of the American Booksellers for Foundation for Free Expression and helped establish the Southeast Booksellers Association, now known as the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
In 2006, the Jacksons won the ABA's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Also that year, Rhett won a Playboy Foundation Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Achievement Award.
Jackson was just as involved in local organizations, religion and politics as he was in the bookselling world. He served on the boards of South Carolina Parole and Community Corrections, the Alston Wilkes Society, Claflin College and the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council. In addition, he was a member of United 2000, a group opposed to the display of the Confederate flag on public property.
Jackson fought for racial equality both in the Methodist Church, helping to combine its separate black and white churches, and in society in general.
Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina NAACP, told the State, "Martin Luther King had a quote about the ultimate measure of a man being 'not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience.' Rhett Jackson was that kind of man, he took courageous stands during a very difficult time in South Carolina's history."
One of his former customers, Alex Sanders, former chief judge of the S.C. Court of Appeals and former president of the College of Charleston, added: "Rhett was gregarious and also the most moral person I have ever known. He could make you do the right thing without embarrassing you."
We remember Rhett Jackson as articulate, thoughtful, amusing, gracious and a wonderful conversationalist. We will miss him.