However, touring in the United States was not entirely without risk. Though abolished per se, slavery was still very much prevalent in American society. There were well over a thousand black people lynched during the decades surrounding the turn of the Century in 1900. In addition, competition from white minstrel groups increased once they discovered that more money could be made by blackening their faces before going onstage.
In the spring of 1891, Jackson and around forty other prominent black entertainers went on a tour across Europe with 'William Foote's African-American Character Concert Company.' The world premiere was in Hamburg. The company continued to perform across Germany for a short period until the impresario lost interest and handed it all over to one of his employees.
Under their new name 'James Dodd & Company's Coloured Troupe,' the artist group premiered once again as part of the Christmas show at the Circus Varieté in Copenhagen. It was a huge success! The applause kept going, never wanting to stop, and funniest of all was Geo Jackson. Jackson was a tall man with a talent for acrobatics and a good sense of timing. The people of Copenhagen simply loved him. Unfortunately, by the New Year in 1892, Dodd had already fallen out with his artists, most of whom returned to the United States.
Jackson, however, was one of a smaller group of men who decided to stay in Denmark. He toured throughout Europe and often performed in Sweden. In the spring of 1882, Jackson performed at Lorensberg in Gothenburg and the following summer in the Sundsvall park. By September the same year, he performed regularly in Stockholm. He eventually fell in love with a Danish woman named Hansine Hjorth, and in the autumn of 1906, they had a little boy, George Carl Arvid Jackson.
Geo Jackson would sing alone or with other 'colored minstrels' and made himself known for songs such as 'Oh mama' and 'Jackson best.' The songs could be heard hummed and whistled all over town. He also organized audience sing-alongs to songs such as 'Ho-o-li-day'. He first gave a long speech to the audience and invited the most beautiful ladies up onto the stage. Then, he would continue to lead the saloon audience through the choruses with the tenors singing bass and the ladies 'a little bit of everything'. Jackson also led a ten-man orchestra at Berns Saloons in Stockholm, performed the sand jig dance, and is said to have introduced Europe to the cakewalk dance in 1892. During the last years of the 19th Century, Jackson enjoyed great success in Norway with his touring orchestra.
In spring 1907, Jackson was in Helsinki, then came to Stockholm to sing at Novilla on Djurgården. However, Jackson fell very ill and was admitted to the Seraphim Hospital. When matters took a turn for the worse, he quickly arranged for himself and Miss Hjorth to be married. He then felt a little better again and, consequently, was moved to a hospital in Copenhagen. It was here that his heart stopped on 7 May. At Geo Jackson's funeral in Vestre Kirkegård in Copenhagen, the chapel was full of flowers and wreaths. Everyone was there. Famous entertainers, ventriloquists, musicians, and theatre directors all came to mourn the man who had given them so much joy in life.
Sources
Information about Geo Jackson was sourced from https://pov.international/geo-Jackson-en-sort-dirch-passer
He also appears in entertainment advertisements in the daily press https://tidningar.kb.se
Read more about his career in the Green, Lotz and Rye book 'Black Europe' (2013) and in Erlend Hegdal's «Charleston i Grukkedalen — Afroamerikanske artister på norske scener — fra blackface-komikere til Louis Armstrong» (2019) (Charleston in Grukkedalen - African-American artists on the Norwegian stage - from black faced comedians to Louis Armstrong).