Rufus D Jackson in his mayoral robes
Harold Mayor and one time US movie star Rufus D. Jackson has been ‘outed’ as a white man by his parents.
Derek & Rita Jackson wrote to The Evening Harold from their home in South Yorkshire, alleging that Rufus has been falsely portraying himself as black for many years.
We spoke with Derek, a retired duck farmer, and Rita, a former nursery nurse. They told us that Rufus was born Richard Derek Jackson, and began blacking up in 1972 in order to break into the blaxplotation film industry. Rufus enjoyed a successful movie carer, staring in many films including Black Knuckle Sandwich, Black Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Black Fruit Punch, before returning to the UK to pursue his love of local politics.
Rufus was an inspiration to many, even motivating his close fried Billy Paul (a white maths teacher from Nottinghamshire) to write the US Billboard 100 hit ‘Am I Black Enough For you’.
The Mayor has avoided answering any direct questions about his race and ethnicity, but was spotted in The Squirrel Lickers Arms yesterday whistling ‘To be young, gifted and black’.
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