Concerned parent Harry Jackson joined WMAL’s Larry O’Connor Show last week, to discuss the Fairfax County School Board’s ongoing war on Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology (affectionately known as “TJ”). Jackson recently authored a Washington Post op-ed blasting “paternalistic White liberals” who “don’t think Black and Hispanic students have what it takes to compete on merit.”

During his WMAL interview, Jackson — the first African American from his county to win admission to the U.S. Naval Academy and a self-described “a second generation NAACP member” — noted that Fairfax County’s NAACP chapter is now dominated by “White liberals.” Jackson lamented that today’s Fairfax County NAACP “should be fighting against racism — and they’re openly embracing it.” The Coalition for TJ, by contrast, “stands for diversity and excellence,” Jackson said.

In his recent op-ed, Jackson wrote: “To be clear, as an African American father of a TJ student, I would also like to see more Black and Hispanic students at the school. But if those students are not making the grade, the problem isn’t the standards. It’s more likely that the elementary school pipeline is failing to prepare them for the rigors of an environment like TJ.”

Jackson made news on WMAL by announcing his intent to run for a seat on the Fairfax County School Board. “That is the best news I’ve heard all day,” O’Connor said. “I don’t even care who you’re running against — you have my endorsement!”

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