Dr. Joseph Jackson ’75 has always been fascinated with how things are built. This curiosity has led to a lifetime of inventing technology, inspiring others, and giving back to his community. His inventions have helped to improve people’s lives, including a programmable television receiver controller (pre-cursor to the V-chip) and fertility prediction devices to help with family planning and reduce teen pregnancy.

Born in 1937, Dr. Jackson grew up outside of New Orleans in Harvey, Jefferson Parrish, Louisianna. The fourth of eight 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, he had an interest in electronics that his parents helped to encourage. His father was a carpenter and would sometimes take his kids along to see him at work. “One day there would be just an empty lot where he was hired to build a house. A few months later, there would be a home with kids playing in the yard,” says Dr. Jackson. “He could take a yellow pad and pencil and draw up any type of floor plan. You can still see some of the homes he built today.”

When Dr. Jackson was four years old, his brother and friends were throwing rocks. One hit him in the right eye, and caused him to lose his vision in that eye. His mother made sure he knew that it wouldn’t hold him back from attaining his goals. “She used to say whatever I lost in that eye would go right to my brain,” he says.

Throughout his 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood, his mom noticed that he liked to take things apart to see if he could fix them. When he was 12, his mom started letting him know when someone in the community needed an appliance fixed so he could help them. He also found inventive ways to help around the house. Once, he remembers, he used a fishing pole to build a TV antennae to help get a television station that wasn’t coming in well.

At 18, before finishing high school, Dr. Jackson joined the Army. He served in a variety of jobs, including unloading ships in Alaska and serving as a military policeman. During this time, he also received his GED.  While stationed in Korea, he worked as a heavy equipment operator and mechanic. He then enrolled in radio and television repair school and opened his own part-time TV repair business while stationed in North Carolina.

In 1968 he was honorably discharged from the Army. He rejoined in 1970 where he served again in Korea as an engineer equipment technician. In 1971, he graduated from the U.S. Army Recruiting and Career Counselor School and became an Army recruiter. A few years later, while working as a recruiter in Los Angeles, he earned his associate’s degree in business administration at Columbia College’s campus in Norwalk, California.

The experience of finishing his degree made an impression on him—one that would lead him to pursue knowledge by reading and learning throughout his career. Years later, he went on to earn a Doctorate in Applied Science and Technology from Glendale University.

“Columbia College helped give me confidence and made me realize the importance of educating myself, “ he says. “It was a good foundation that helped motivate me to learn everything I could and propel me in the next phase of my career.”

Around the time he was at Columbia College, he developed the idea for his first invention — a programmable television receiver, which allowed the user to view or limit certain shows at predetermined times. In 1978, he was granted a patent for his invention. This became the precursor to the V-chip, technology that allows parent to block television shows based on their ratings.

Because of this invention, years later, he was called as an expert to testify before Congress about how technology could help limit 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s access to violent television programming. He testified on how parents could use the technology and what the benefits were. He also earned the Award of Excellence plaque from the Film & Television Advisory Board, Hollywood, California, for his innovation to the television industry in developing the first parental control system.

In the 1990s, Dr. Jackson received his first patent for a fertility prediction device. The goal of the device is to help educate and empower girls and women, assist with family planning, and help prevent teenage pregnancies.  It uses color coding to show fertile days and non-fertile days based on the individual person’s menstrual cycle. Dr. Jackson established FemChoice Technologies LLC in January 2012 to produce the device as well as an app that can be used on mobile devices. The Los Angeles School District recently purchased the app for students’ tablets to help educate teenagers about their cycle. The device will also soon be available on Amazon.

In addition to creating his own inventions, Dr. Jackson works to inspire others to develop their own businesses and innovations. He is a member of the Black Business Association of Los Angeles and the Hawthorne Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Advisory Board of MESA/MEP at Cal State University of Long Beach School of Engineering. He serves as Patent Consultant to many potential inventors in the local community and nationally, and he speaks at schools to help students learn to think “inventively.”

Dr. Jackson is also the co-founder of the Black Inventions Museum, a traveling exhibit that showcases Black inventors and their contributions to society. It features inventors such as Garrett A. Morgan, who patented the traffic signal in 1923. Dr. Jackson says one of those most heartwarming experiences is seeing the impact the museum has for visitors.

“Some have cried with pride just seeing all the contributions that Black people have made,” he says. “They didn’t realize all the things we invented that are useful in our country that we often take for granted. Hopefully it’s a way to help educate and motivate people to think about what they can create for the next generation.”