"Around the Verge of Parting Life":

Few Blacks were involved in the gerontological movement of the 1950s. Only eight attended the 1950 White House Conference on Aging. One of these individuals was Hobart Jackson who was administrator of the Stephen Smith Home for the Aged, originally the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons which was founded in 1864 by Blacks and Quakers. It is now the oldest Black Nursing Home in the United States. Jackson emerged as the leading spokesman for the Black elderly. His administration of the Stephen Smith Home, guided by the new conceptual formulations and emerging philosophies of care, brought it abreast of the times and led Jackson to the broader arena of advocate for Black gerontology. His activities culminated in the founding of the Washingtonbased National Caucus on Black Aged in 1970 and the National Center in 1973. Primarily a practitioner but at times a theorist, Hobart Jackson, the Father of Black gerontology, deserves a significant place in the annals of gerontology.