This special issue of the Journal of Aging and Health honors the memory of James Jackson by elevating his many research contributions to the physical and mental health of older Black Americans. The articles focus on the central problems and questions that James Jackson addressed throughout his illustrious career. All articles in the special issue focus on older Black Americans and include at least one of the following elements: (1) articles based on the National Survey of American Life, the data set for which James Jackson was the Principal Investigator; (2) articles that utilize the Environmental Affordances Model which was developed by James Jackson; (3) articles that include the Everyday Discrimination scale which was originally published by David Williams, James Jackson, and colleagues; (4) and articles based on the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), the data set for which James Jackson served as Editor for a special issue of The Gerontologist.
Keywords: African Americans; lifecourse; mental health; social factors; well-being.