Notes of a Radical Son

“In his quest for the truth about his iconic father and uncle and how the struggle that took their lives shaped his own, Jonathan Peter Jackson, Jr. has produced an epic story of family, race, enigmatic literary and political worlds, and the incalculable cost of revolution. Part memoir, part history, part novel, Notes of a Radical Son is a work of art: beautiful, honest, tragic, and unsettling. Destined to be a classic.​” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

“This fascinating and beautiful book by Jonathan Jackson Jr. lays bare some of the intimate and personal dimensions of the heroic Black freedom fighters of the 1960s. From time with Jacques Derrida in ​P​aris to the lovely Afeni Shakur (Tupac’s precious mother), this fast-paced text brings to life a journey of a writer dedicated to the life of the mind and the world of an imploding empire.”​ —Cornel West

“This is a captivating coming of age story and epic family history at once. A gorgeously written journey through the crossroads of the twentieth century, as crumbling empires and freedom dreams collide, Notes of a Radical Son is filled with heroic figures of of twentieth-century social movements and intellectual life, yet it is also tender and intimate in its rendering of a global childhood with a deeply American root. It is an essential, masterful, and unforgettable book.” —Imani Perry, author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons

​“Through captivating novel-like storytelling, Jonathan Peter Jackson, Jr. shows the impact of his father’s and uncle’s violent deaths on him, the child unborn, through memories and experiences slowly unveiled to him and through things still unknown. His is a multigenerational family saga navigated through poverty, racism, and endless displacements, and candid, disturbing reflections on life and revolution.​” —Diane C. Fujino, author of Black Power Afterlives: The Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party

“Jonathan Peter Jackson, Jr.’s Notes of a Radical Son is past and future braided into the present. More than memoir, more than history, ​it is a multilayered story that also weaves the dynamics of race, injustice, and working-class angst into a spellbinding narrative worthy of revolutionary minds.”​ —Luis J. Rodriguez, author of Hearts & Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times

“An extraordinary portrait of the artist as a seeking son. In Jackson’s quest to recover and recreate generations of his family’s past, he delivers an essential story about our collective past and a radical reckoning with the question of what we owe each other.” —Harriet Clark, author of The Hill

Jonathan Peter Jackson Jr. is a writer and visual artist whose work bridges personal memory, political history, and the imagination. Born in California, he spent the first nineteen years of his life living under a different name following the deaths of his father, Jonathan Jackson, and his uncle, George Jackson.

He wrote the foreword to the current edition of Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson and narrated its 2023 audiobook edition.

Writing under the pen name Ivan O. Martin, he is the author of the Afrofuturist novel The Reductionists (1999), an early exploration of identity and resistance. His visual art has been exhibited in solo and group shows over several decades.

He holds degrees in literature from UC Berkeley and Cornell, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family. Notes of a Radical Son is his first book-length work of nonfiction.

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