'Bishop Bob,' Pastor of Oakland's Acts Full Gospel Church honored
OAKLAND -- On Saturday, one of Oakland's religious leaders was awarded one of the nation's highest civilian honors -- the President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Bishop Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church was recognized for devoting his life to the community he grew up in.
When the medal was hung around his neck, bestowing the award, Bishop Bob Jackson said it was a miracle even he had a hard time believing, especially considering where he came from.
"I grew up as a gangster, a thug, a mugger, a dope user," he said.
Jackson grew up in Campbell Village on Oakland's west side, a rough housing project in the 1970s. His life was changed the day he watched the funeral for a notorious drug dealer whose body was ceremoniously paraded down the street in a horse-drawn carriage.
"For a drug dealer!" Jackson recalled. "I said 'Oh no, this can't be who we glorify in our community, this can't be who we lift up in our community.' What about God?"
In the early 1980s Jackson opened Acts Full Gospel Church and, ever since, he has welcomed the community, counseling the down and out. Sgt. Robert Smith, who helps operate the city's OK Program that mentors youth, said Jackson has helped countless young men avoid a life of crime. Trusted by both sides, Jackson has become an important intermediary between the city's police and its Black community.
"Mr. Jackson is the ultimate peacemaker when it comes to trying to make peace in the community, trying to resolve issues," Sgt. Smith said.
Bishop Jackson spearheaded the effort to build affordable housing when others wouldn't and, during the pandemic, he calmed the fears of African Americans by operating testing and immunization clinics in the church parking lot. At Saturday's event, while he may have been surprised by the honor, no one else in the room was.
"This man can do everything," said Kathy Adams, CEO of Oakland's African American Chamber of Commerce. "You can see a Presidential award but he's not too big for the people and he can walk on all sides of the street -- the curbs, in between, outside, over -- that's Bishop Bob."
The award presenter, Dr. Kenneth Wayne Curry -- himself a recipient -- said he considers it his duty to recognize people like Bishop Jackson.
"These are impact people that are there every day," he said. "I call them the unsung heroes that nobody really knows what they do but we're so glad there are people like that out there."
From a humble and unlikely beginning, Bishop Bob Jackson has built a life of service that has now been recognized at the highest levels of the government. As a man of faith, he gives most of the credit to an even higher power.
"God has a miraculous way of taking nothing and making something out of it and this is what I see with this award. It's incredible," he said. "He doesn't use special people. He uses ordinary people to do miraculous things."
Ordinary? Not by most people's criteria.
The next President's Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 will be presented in November to Denzel Washington.