Janet E. Jackson ’75, P’12

“I’m from the South. I went to a segregated school, grades one through seven. As an eighth grader, I had to ride a school bus where I was the only Black child. For an hour each way, each day, I was on a bus with kids who had been taught to hate me because of my skin color. That’s all I need to say.

You go from that to visiting Wittenberg: When you walk across campus, people smile and say hello. It still happens today. It’s always a smile and a hello. I don’t think it’s just a generational thing. It’s part of the culture.

Wittenberg, for me, opened the doors for opportunity, including the opportunity to meet new people. I made friends with international students, with folks from urban parts of the country, from California, from the Northeast. I’m a people person. So the whole people connection was amazing.

If I had to rank what contributed to my success, I would start with my family and my faith. I have an incredible mom. But Wittenberg to me was the foundation of all my success after that. It was the education I received that made me a lifelong learner. And it was the people. The faculty were very, very accessible. The professors knew you as a human being, not just as a student. They were very supportive. Even recently I received a book of poems by one of my history professors. We had stayed in touch.

When I was a freshman, I met a senior. He was a biology major. We started dating. In the summer of 1974, sitting in his parents’ living room in Chillicothe, Ohio, he came up with this bright idea that I had to go to law school. I thought he was crazy! I’d never met an African American lawyer, or a female lawyer. But we made a bet, and I lost. So I went to law school. And I fell in love with the practice of law. And then I fell in love with volunteering. I was involved with YWCA, Urban League, United Way. I’m an excellent networker, and I think I actually started developing that skill when I was at Wittenberg. That’s just part of who I am. I can’t take credit for the lawyer business. I never would have gone to law school if he hadn’t pushed. I always acknowledge him.

I look around at the people who have come here. There is an African American alum who went to law school in Cleveland, and I see how his life changed. He was very, very close to a group of guys from Wittenberg who encouraged him to move to Columbus and to join the City Attorney’s office. He is now the managing partner in a law firm.

When you think back on what Wittenberg did for you, I would ask you, ‘Where did you meet your friends? What about the relationships that got you here?’ Wittenberg relationships get us where we are. I think this is true for so many of us.”