Duane Jackson

Duane Jackson portrays a soldier in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment – a pioneering military unit consisting of the first African American soldiers to fight as free men in the Revolutionary War. The 1st Rhode Island played a vital and heroic role in the brief, but brutal, battle at the Pines Bridge crossing of the Croton River in 1781.

Jackson, himself, is a decorated U.S. Navy veteran, having served aboard the USS Ranger aircraft carrier in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. He is co-president of the Buchanan Historical Society, and a member of the Van Cortlandtville Historical Society and the Westchester County Historical Society. He is a member of American Legion Post 1030 in Verplanck, Vietnam Veterans Chapter 49 in Westchester, and the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 137 in Westchester and Putnam counties.

He earned his BA Degree in City Planning in 1976 from Boston University and did post graduate work in Washington. D.C. Prior to establishing his own business, he worked with the NYC Department of Housing and Preservation, the NYC Board of Education (Division of School Buildings), and a private engineering firm.