Jackson holds a Ph.D. in Communications and Visual Anthropology from Union Institute, an MFA and BFA from Yale University and an MSW form SUNY at Stony Brook, Long Island.

For almost forty years he has conducted visual research throughout the African Diaspora documenting African retentions in the Americas and the Caribbean, including Cuba, Brazil and Haiti. A prolific exhibitor he has participated in over 200 exhibits in Ghana, China, Brazil and the United States.

Currently he is Professor Emeritus of Communications at Simmons College in Boston where he helped shape the photography curriculum over thirty-five years ago. He has received many honors including a Fulbright fellowship, and fellowships from the Ford Foundation and Smithsonian Institution. In 2007, he received a Man of the Year award from Simmons College.

Jackson's work is in many prestigious permanent collections; the Boston Athenaeum, MIT Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, The Bowdoin Museum of Art, The RISD Museum of Art and Simmons and Amherst Colleges.