"Giles-Beecher-Jackson" {September 10,1853-August 13,1924}

One of four children of Hulda & James Jackson.During Jackson's formative

years,the family lived in Goochland County.Little is known of his daddy,because his mama was enslaved,by law he and siblings were born into slavery.During the Civil War,Giles became the body servant of his owner,Charles G.Dickerson,a Confederate cavalry colonel.After the war,he worked for the Stewart family on the Brook Hill estate in Richmond,where he learned to read and write.On November 17,1874,Giles married Sarah Ellen Wallace,and together they had fourteen children.Giles studied law under the tutelage of the Richmond attorney William H.Beveridge,and on November 30,1887,he became the first African American certified to practice law before the Virginia Supreme Court of appeals-in its day,the equivalent of passing the bar.


In 1888 Giles wrote  Giles wrote the articles of incorporation for the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers,of which he was a member.The bank was rooted in the tradition of the benevolent societies and fraternal organizations of the era.By 1907 membership had reached 100,000 with deposits of  $330,000 and more than $1.5 million in annual business. Booker T.Washington selected Giles as his aide-de camp in 1990 when Booker was organized the Negro Business League in Boston.Giles served as vice president during the organization's first three years.


In 1901,United States President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned Giles an honorary colonel and Giles participated in the presidential inaugural parade in 1905,Theodore renewed the commission and for the occasion Giles commanded the Third Civic Division,an African American cavalry unit.


In March 1902,Virginia governor Andrew Jackson Montague chartered the Jamestown Exposition Company to organize an event to commemorate the three-hundred anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by English settlers.The commissioners had not planned to feature African American Virginians,Giles saw an opportunity to highlight their achievements at a time when lynching were common across the South-forty in Virginia since 1890-and Jim Crow laws enforced strict segregation and second-class citizenship.Following the endorsement of the Jamestown Exposition Company's president,Fitzhugh Lee,Giles promoted his idea of a Negro Building that would be home to exhibitions by and about African Americans.He organized the Negro Development and Exposition Company of the United States of America (NDEC),which oversaw construction from its headquarters in Richmond.

The NDEC  set up a nation board of directors that include both African Americans and white members,and in 1903 President Roosevelt appointed Giles its director general.The group lobbied Congress for $1.2 million but instead received $100,000 from the Treasury Department:in the meantime,critics,charged that Gile's  effort to create a separate exhibit at the Ter-Centennial only emphasized African Americans position in a segregated society.Giles defended and publicized the venture in his newspaper the Negro Criterion,which also promoted African American business in general.In addition,Roosevelt proved to be an important advocate.In a public appearance in front of Gile's law office in Richmond,the president,addressing Giles,congratulated "you and your people on the magnificent showing you have made in your development.I am with you.I assure you and your people that you have that you have my hearty support in the efforts you are making to have a creditable exhibit of the achievements of your race and commend you  in the effort you are making for the betterment of the condition of your race."

Between April 16 & December 1,1907,the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition,held in Northfolk,attracted three million visitors.The Virginian-Pilot reported that the Negro building  was indeed "an excellent showing"and was one of the most well attended and well awarded venues at the exposition.

The official record estimates that at least a least 750,000 visited the Negro Building,and the exhibition won 162 medals: 25 gold,51 silver, and 86 bronze.Following the success of the exhibitions at the Negro Building organizers,led by Giles,published an Address and Appeal to the White People seeking support to relocate the Negro Building to Richmond as a permanent national museum.The Richmond News Leader declared that "the Negro exhibit at the exposition is universally regarded as one of the best on the grounds,and its removal to Richmond would be a matter,not only of considerable interest,but of substantial value to the city."Because the organizers could find no financial support the Negro Building was dismantled,as were the other buildings, at the Jamestown Exposition.In 1908,Giles published The Industrial History of the Negro Race of the United States,which provided a history of the exhibition,as well as of African American achievements in business and the arts.

During World War 1 (1914-1918) Giles appointed of the Negro Division of the U.S. Employment Service in Washington,D.C.,serving until June 30,1919.He spent the last four years of his life lobbying Congress on behalf of a commission to address Interracial labor problems and,more generally,the working conditions of African Americans.Both U.S. presidents Warren G.Harding & Calvin Coolidge expressed support for such a commission,they took no action.Separate bills were introduced in the U.S.House of Representatives in May 1920,December 1923,and June 1924 and in the U.S.Senate,and Giles became ill while attending the Republican National  Convention in Cleveland,Ohio.
Giles died of cardiac asthma complicated with acute nephritis.