Born in Washington D.C. December 21, 1948 but then grew up in Chatanooga,Tennessee with his mother, Elizabeth Jackson.
"Casting black actors is still strange for Hollywood. Denzel gets the offer first. Then it's Danny Glover,Forest Whitaker and Wesley Snipes. Right now, I'm the next one on the list."
Jackson reacting to his new fame in 1993.
His mother Elizabeth was a factory worker and then later became a supplies buyer for a mental institution, and his maternal grandparents and extended family.
His father lived away from the family in Kansas City, Missouri and later unfortunately died from alcoholism. Jackson had only met his father twice during his life. Jackson attended several segregated schools and graduated from Riverside High School in Chattanooga. Between the third and twelfth grades, he played the French horn and the trumpet for his school Orchestra. He later attended Morehorse College in Atlanta, Georgia where he co-founded the "Just Us Theatre" before graduating in 1972.
After the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackson attended the funeral in Atlanta as one of the ushers. Then Samuel flew to Memphis to join an equal rights protest march. In a Parade interview Jackson revealed: "I was angry about the assassination, but I wasn’t shocked by it. I knew that change was going to take something different not sit-ins, not peaceful coexistence." In 1969, Jackson and several other students held members of the Morehouse College board of trustees (including a nearby Martin Luther King, Sr.) hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance. college eventually agreed to change its policy, but Jackson was charged with and eventually convicted of unlawful confinement, a second-degree felony. He was then suspended for two years for his criminal record and his actions although he later in 1972 returned to the college to earn his Bachelor of Arts in Drama.Samuel L. Jackson has been in so many movies. One of my favorite movies he was in was "The Negotiator". Which he co-stared with the actor Kevin Spacey.