Most people know Samuel L. Jackson as the highest-grossing actor of all time. The guy who stares down hitmen in Pulp Fiction or leads the Avengers as Nick Fury. But before the Kangols and the lightsabers, there was a skinny kid in Atlanta with a serious chip on his shoulder and a very different career path in mind.
He wasn't always an actor. Honestly, he was a scientist.
When Jackson arrived at Morehouse College in the mid-1960s, he was actually a marine biology major. He wanted to study the ocean. But the late 60s in Atlanta wasn't exactly a quiet time for reflection or quiet study. The city was a pressure cooker of civil rights activism, and Morehouse—the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr.—was right at the center of the flame.
Then came 1968.
Everything changed on April 4th. Jackson was at a liquor store buying a quart of beer for a campus movie night when he heard the news: Dr. King had been shot. He went to the movie anyway—a flick called John Goldfarb, Please Come Home—until a man ran into the theater screaming that King was dead.
That was the end of the marine biology dreams. It was the beginning of a radicalization that almost cost him his life.
The 1969 Hostage Crisis at Morehouse College
By 1969, Jackson and his classmates were fed up. They felt the curriculum was too white, too traditional, and too focused on grooming "Negroes for the establishment" rather than Black leaders for a revolution. They wanted a Black Studies department. They wanted more Black representation on the Board of Trustees.
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So, they did something unthinkable. They took the Board of Trustees hostage.
During a campus meeting, Jackson and a group of radicalized students chained the doors shut. They held the trustees captive for 29 hours. Here is the kicker: one of those hostages was actually Martin Luther King Sr., the father of the recently slain civil rights icon.
"Daddy King," as he was known, started having chest pains during the standoff. The students weren't monsters; they didn't want him to die on their watch. Jackson later recalled that they didn't want to unlock the doors and risk the police storming the building, so they literally put the elder King on a ladder and lowered him out of a window to get him to a hospital.
The standoff ended with the board promising to make changes. But as soon as the doors opened, the school reneged. Jackson was charged with a second-degree felony and promptly expelled.
From Expulsion to the FBI Watchlist
You’d think getting kicked out of school would slow him down. It didn't.
Jackson stayed in Atlanta and got even more involved with the Black Power movement. He started hanging out with figures like H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael. This was the era of the "Black Panthers" mentality. They were buying guns. They were preparing for what they felt was an inevitable armed conflict.
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Then his mother stepped in.
One day, she showed up at his door and told him to get in the car. She didn't give him a choice. The FBI had actually visited her and told her that if Sam didn't leave Atlanta, he’d be dead within a year. She bought him a one-way ticket to Los Angeles.
He spent two years in LA working as a social worker. It was a cooling-off period, sure, but it was also where the acting bug finally bit. He eventually realized that he could express his rage and his message through performance rather than just protests and firearms.
The Return to Samuel L. Jackson Morehouse Roots
In 1970, the college let him come back. But there was a catch. He couldn't be a political science or marine biology student anymore; he had to stay in the drama department where they could "keep an eye on him."
It was a blessing in disguise.
He met his wife, LaTanya Richardson, during this time. She was a student at Spelman College, the sister school across the street. Together, they performed with the Morehouse-Spelman Players. He graduated in 1972 with a degree in Drama, a far cry from the fish and coral reefs he’d originally planned to study.
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The couple never forgot where they came from. In 2021, they made a massive $5 million donation to Spelman College to renovate the theater where they first performed together. It’s now the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Performing Arts Center.
Why This History Matters Today
Understanding the Samuel L. Jackson Morehouse connection isn't just trivia. It’s a look at the DNA of one of our greatest actors. When you see that intensity in his eyes on screen, it’s not just "acting." It’s the same fire that led a 20-year-old kid to lock the doors of a university building to demand a better future.
Most people see the success. They don't see the felony charge, the FBI threats, or the two years in exile.
Actionable Insights from Jackson's Journey:
- Pivoting is Power: Jackson moved from Marine Biology to Architecture to Drama. Don't be afraid to change your major or your career path if the world changes around you.
- Activism has Consequences: Jackson’s expulsion wasn't "fair," but he stood by his convictions. He eventually used his platform to create even more systemic change through philanthropy.
- HBCUs are Foundational: The network Jackson built at Morehouse (including meeting Spike Lee later on) was the springboard for his entire career. Investing in these institutions remains a high-impact way to support Black excellence.
If you're ever in Atlanta, take a walk through the Atlanta University Center. You can feel the history. You can almost see a young Sam Jackson walking those grounds, quart of beer in hand, unknowingly on his way to becoming a legend. He didn't just attend Morehouse; he challenged it, changed it, and eventually, came back to save it.
Next Steps for Deeper Insight
To truly appreciate this era of history, research the 1969 Morehouse Student Protests and the role of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta. You can also look into the archival footage of the Morehouse-Spelman Players from the early 70s to see Jackson's earliest performances before he hit the big screen.