By Barnett Wright
The Birmingham Times
Joe Nathan Dickson, Civil Rights activist, publisher and owner of the Birmingham World newspaper, was remembered Saturday as man who put the interests of his community ahead of his own.
Dickson, entrepreneur and pioneer, died on Saturday July 21, 2018. He was 85.
“He loved black people,” said his granddaughter, Dr. Jewell “JJ” Josette Dickson. “He felt no one could love us better, educate us better or serve us better than our own. He spent his life for that work.”
Funeral services for Mr. Dickson were held Saturday, July 28, at Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church in Fairfield. Longtime friend Frank Dukes, associate minister of Saint Joseph Baptist Church, served as eulogist.
“My grandfather believed that I was great. He didn’t just believe that I was great he believed that we were all great,” said his granddaughter. “That great was within our DNA. And so if you were with him, he just poured that into your life.”
Dickson said she didn’t have memories of playing catch or marbles with her grandfather. He was always working. “I can remember being a little girl at Birmingham World and Century 21 in a corner either coloring, reading or helping in some way,’ she said. “He said ‘ JJ, [if] you don’t own it, you can’t boss it’. There is a lot of people in this room that got their shot because of Joe Dickson gave you a shot. He was the launching pad for a lot of people. He believed in us.”
Mr. Dickson worked in real estate, construction and with political leaders and was the president of the Alabama Republican Council for a number of years and was asked to work for the former governor of Alabama, Guy Hunt, as the Assistant of Minority Affairs in 1988.
Frank Dukes, of Birmingham’s East Lake community, and a native of Fairfield, met Dickson in the 1944 and remembered Mr. Dickson earned his law degree from Howard University Law School in 1973, fast on the heels of a time when blacks were prohibited from attending state law schools. “And the state of Alabama would not let many black men pass the bar exam. Perhaps they would let one or two pass every five years,” said Dukes in an interview.
Despite Mr. Dickson’s successful forays into construction, insurance and newspaper ventures, he remained down to earth. “He would give money to folks he did not know, $5 or $10… Women loved him, old or young, white or black,” said Dukes.
He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Dr. Charlie Jones Dickson; seven children Johnny Dickson, Sheila Dickson, Joanne Dickson, Janet Dickson, Jonathan Dickson, Jori Dickson, Chari Dickson; 13 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
For more on Mr. Dickson, click here and here.
Birmingham Times freelance writer Nathan Turner, Jr. contributed to this article.
