22 | THEBURGNEWS.COM | 06.20
C
alobe Jackson nimbly treads a narrow
path behind his childhood home. He
plants a hand on a low concrete wall.
"My dad had this wall put in,
probably around 1937 or 1938," he said.
Jackson's memories are modest. Sweeping
barbershop floors. Pears growing on backyard
trees. But when Harrisburg's history-keepers
talk about Jackson, they pull out the superlatives.
"Living treasure." "Walking encyclopedia."
"Historian's historian."
Calobe Jackson, Jr., turned 90 in April. With
his steel-trap memory and will-do attitude,
he has spent decades in community service.
His contributions have broadened the scope of
Harrisburg's past, even as he steps into the future
as a muse for revitalization of a key piece of
African-American entrepreneurial history.
STORIES THEY TOLD
In 1934, World War I veteran Calobe Jackson,
Sr., relocated his barbershop and his family,
including 4-year-old Calobe, Jr., from Strawberry
Alley to N. 6th Street.
In a mixed-race neighborhood, "Jack's
Barbershop" joined a thriving African-American
business scene. German Jackson (no relation) ran
the Green Book-listed Jackson House rooming
house and restaurant next door. A beauty school
was on the other side. At the funeral home on the
corner, morticians would embalm bodies in the
basement and carry them upstairs via a stairwell
leading to the sidewalk.
ese are the stories Jackson shares as he walks
around his old neighborhood.
HISTORY
KEEPER
As Harrisburg changes,
Calobe Jackson Jr. tells the
stories of what came before.
BY M. DIANE MCCORMICK
LeRon McCoy, Calobe Jackson and Ryan Sanders.
