Levi Jackson (August 22, 1926[1] – December 7, 2000) was an Americancollege football player and business executive. He was the firstAfrican-American footballcaptain atYale, and the first African-American executive atFord Motor Company.
Jackson was born inBranford, Connecticut. Jackson's father was a master steward and chef atPierson College atYale. LikeAlbie Booth before him, Jackson was a football standout atHillhouse High School inNew Haven, Connecticut, and later at Yale.
Jackson attended Yale on theG.I. Bill, having attained the rank ofsergeant in theU.S. Army Ordnance Corps.[2] After playing football for theU.S. Army on theCamp Lee team in Virginia, Jackson turned down an offer to play for theNew York Giants. That would have made him the first African-American to play in the modernNational Football League (NFL).
Yale coachHowie Odell welcomed Jackson as acollege football player, the1946 Bulldogs achieving a 7–1–1 record, anAssociated Press poll finish at 12, and a victory overHarvard, one of three during Jackson's four seasons with Yale. Jackson was a member of the Class of 1950 at Yale, and captained the1949 Bulldogs,[3] the election taken soon after the 1948 season. Jackson's election to the captaincy was unprecedented, given he was the first African-American to play football for Yale, but no surprise within the Yale community. "The voting took only ten minutes. There was no one else. It had to be Levi," a Yale player recounted.
Jackson alsolettered for theYale men's basketball team.[4] He is understood to be the first African-American tapped for a Yalesecret society or senior society. He was a member of theBerzelius Society, the Aurelian Honor Society, and theAlpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[5]
After graduating from Yale, Jackson went to work for theFord Motor Company in 1950. By 1962, he was an executive, the first African-American to reach that level at Ford; he was a vice president when he retired in 1983. Alongside his responsibilities while holding positions in labor relations, he was instrumental in setting up Ford's Minority Dealer Training Program,[6] and helped see that Ford hired 10,000 workers from within the city of Detroit, where he chose to live.[7] He was involved in his community, working with the New Detroit Committee after the1967 Detroit riot, and served on the National Selective Service Appeal Board in 1969, at the height of theVietnam War.[8] Jackson was a longtime member of the Detroit YMCA Businessmen's Club, where he spent many hours holding court at the "main table."[citation needed]