A00026 - Earl Bostic, Jazz Alto Saxophonist

Earl Bostic (April 25, 1912 – October 28, 1965) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and a pioneer of the post-war American rhythm and blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp" and "Where or When" which all showed off his characteristic growl on the horn. He was a major influence on John Coltrane. 

Bostic was born April 25, 1912 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He turned professional at age 18 when he joined Terence Holder's 'Twelve Clouds of Joy'. He made his first recording with Lionel Hampton in October 1939, with Charlie Christian, Clyde Hart and Big Sid Catlett.  Before that he performed with Fate Marable on New Orleans riverboats. Bostic graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans. He worked with territory bands as well as Arnett Cobb, Hot Lips Page, Rex Stewart, Don Byas, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk, Edgar Hayes, Cab Calloway, an other jazz luminaries.  In 1938, and in 1944, Bostic led the house band at Small's Paradise. While playing at Small's Paradise, he doubled on guitar and trumpet. During the early 1940s, he was a well-respected regular at the famous jam sessions held at Minton's Playhouse. He formed his own band in 1945 and made the first recordings under his own name for the Majestic label. He turned to rhythm and blues in the late 1940s. His biggest hits were "Temptation", "Sleep", "Flamingo", "You Go to My Head" and "Cherokee".  At various times his band included Keter Betts, Jaki Byard, Benny Carter, John Coltrane, Teddy Edwards, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell, Tony Scott, Cliff Smalls, Charles Thompson, Stanley Turrentine, Tommy Turrentine and other musicians who rose to prominence, especially in jazz.

Bostic's King album entitled Jazz As I Feel It featured Shelly Manne on drums, Joe Pass on guitar and Richard "Groove" Holmes on organ. Bostic recorded A New Sound about one month later, again featuring Holmes and Pass. These recordings allowed Bostic to stretch out beyond the three-minute limit imposed by the 45 RPM format. Bostic was pleased with the sessions, which highlight his total mastery of the blues but they also foreshadowed musical advances that were later evident in the work of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy. 

He wrote arrangements for Paul Whiteman, Louis Prima, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Hot Lips Page, Jack Teagarden, Ina Ray Hutton and Alvino Rey. 

His songwriting hits include "Let Me Off Uptown", performed by Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge, and "Brooklyn Boogie", which featured Louis Prima and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

Bostic's signature hit, "Flamingo" was recorded in 1951 and remains a favorite among followers of Carolina Beach Music in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. 

During the early 1950s Bostic lived with his wife in Addisleigh Park in St. Albans, Queens, in New York City, where many other jazz stars made their home. After that he moved to Los Angeles, where he concentrated on writing arrangements after suffering a heart attack. He opened his own R&B club in Los Angeles, known as the Flying Fox.

Bostic died October 28, 1965 from a heart attack in Rochester, New York, while performing with his band. He was buried in Southern California's Inglewood Park Cemetery on November 2, 1965. Honorary pallbearers at the funeral included Slappy White and Louis Prima. 

Earl Bostic was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993.

A00025 - Dorothy Dandridge, Singer and Actress

Dorothy Dandridge, in full Dorothy Jean Dandridge (b. November 9, 1922, Cleveland, Ohio - d. September 8, 1965, West Hollywood, California), was a singer and film actress who was the first African American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress.

Dandridge's mother was an entertainer and comedic actress who, after settling in Los Angeles, had some success in radio and. later, television.  The young Dorothy and her sister Vivian began performing publicly as children and in the 1930s joined a third (unrelated) girl as the Dandridge Sisters, singing and dancing.  In the 1940s and early '50s Dorothy secured a few bit roles in films and developed a highly successful career as a solo nightclub singer, eventually appearing in such popular clubs as the Waldorf Astoria's Empire Room in New York City.

Dandridge then won the title role in Otto Preminger's all-black Carmen Jones (1954), earning an Oscar nomination for best actress.  (Dandridge did not sing in Carmen Jones, however, the singing was dubbed by mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne.)  Because she was an African American woman in a racially tense era, film offers did not come readily, though she did appear in Island in the Sun (1957), which dealt with miscegenation and costarred Harry Belafonte, as well as in The Decks Ran Red (1958), Tamango 1959), and Moment of Danger (1960).  One of her most important roles was Bess  in Preminger's handsomely produced Porgy and Bess (1959), starring opposite Sidney Poitier.  

In the 1960's, Dandridge's life and career were wracked by divorce, personal bankruptcy, and the absence of offers of work.  At age 42, she was found dead in her West Hollywood apartment, either the victim of an accidental drug overdose or a brain embolism. 

A00024 - Nat King Cole, Legendary Singer and Jazz Pianist

Nat King Cole, byname of Nathaniel Adams Cole, family name originally Coles (b. March 17, 1919, Montgomery, Alabama — d. February 15, 1965, Santa Monica, California), was an American musician hailed as one of the best and most influential pianists and small-group leaders of the swing era. Cole attained his greatest commercial success, however, as a vocalist specializing in warm ballads and light siwng.

Cole grew up in Chicago, where, by age 12, he sang and played organ in the church where his father was pastor. He formed his first jazz group, the Royal Dukes, five years later. In 1937, after touring with a black musical revue, he began playing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles. There he formed the King Cole Trio (originally King Cole and His Swingsters), with guitarist Oscar Moore (later replaced by Irving Ashby) and bassist Wesley Prince (later replaced by Johnny Miller). The trio specialized in swing music with a delicate touch in that they did not employ a drummer; also unique were the voicings of piano and guitar, often juxtaposed to sound like a single instrument. An influence on jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson, Cole was known for a compact, syncopated piano style with clean, spare, melodic phrases.

During the late 1930s and early ’40s the trio made several instrumental recordings, as well as others that featured their harmonizing vocals. They found their greatest success, however, when Cole began doubling as a solo singer. Their first chart success, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (1943), was followed by hits such as “Sweet Lorraine,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” and “Route 66.” Eventually, Cole’s piano playing took a backseat to his singing career. Noted for his warm tone and flawless phrasing, Cole was regarded among the top male vocalists, although jazz critics tended to regret his near-abandonment of the piano. He first recorded with a full orchestra (the trio serving as rhythm section) in 1946 for "The Christmas Song," a holiday standard and one of Cole’s biggest-selling recordings. By the 1950s, he worked almost exclusively as a singer, with such notable arrangers as Nelson Riddle and Billy May providing lush orchestral accompaniment. “Nature Boy,” “Mona Lisa,” “Too Young,” “A Blossom Fell,” and “Unforgettable” were among his major hits of the period. He occasionally revisited his jazz roots, as on the outstanding album After Midnight(1956), which proved that Cole’s piano skills had not diminished.

Cole’s popularity allowed him to become the first African American to host a network variety program, The Nat King Cole Show, which debuted on NBC television in 1956. The show fell victim to the bigotry of the times, however, and was canceled after one season. Few sponsors were willing to be associated with a black entertainer. Cole had greater success with concert performances during the late 1950s and early ’60s and twice toured with his own vaudeville-style reviews,The Merry World of Nat King Cole (1961) and Sights and Sounds (1963). His hits of the early ’60s—“Ramblin’ Rose,” “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer,” and “L-O-V-E”—indicate that he was moving even farther away from his jazz roots and concentrating almost exclusively on mainstream pop. Adapting his style, however, was one factor that kept Cole popular up to his early death from lung cancer in 1965.

The prejudices of the era in which Cole lived hindered his potential for even greater stardom. His talents extended beyond singing and piano playing: he excelled as a relaxed and humorous stage personality, and he was also a capable actor, evidenced by his performances in the films Istanbul (1957), China Gate(1957), Night of the Quarter Moon (1959), and Cat Ballou (1965); he also played himself in The Nat “King” Cole Musical Story (1955) and portrayed blues legend W. C. Handy in St. Louis Blues (1958). His daughter Natalie is also a popular singer who achieved her greatest chart success in 1991 with “Unforgettable,” an electronically created duet with her father.

A00023 - Lorraine Hansberry, Playwright and Author of "A Raisin in the Sun"

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (b. May 19, 1930, Chicago, Illinois – d. January 12, 1965, New York City, New York) was an American playwright and writer. Hansberry inspired Nina Simone's song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black". 

She was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun,  highlights the lives of African Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee.  The title of her most famous play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

After she moved to New York City, Hansberry worked at the Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom, where she dealt with intellectuals such as Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois.  Much of her work during this time concerned the African struggle for liberation and their impact on the world. Hansberry has been identified as a lesbian, and sexual freedom is an important topic in several of her works. She died of cancer at the age of 34.

A00022 - Father Divine, Religious Leader and Founder of the Peace Mission

Father Divine, in full Father Major Jealous Divine, original name George Baker (b. 1880?, Georgia - d. September 10, 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), was a prominent African American religious leader most notably during the 1930s.  The Depression era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult.  However, it still exists and is now generally hailed as an important precursor of the Civil Rights Movement.  

Believed to have been born on a plantation in Georgia, Baker began his career in 1899 as an assistant to Father Jehovia (Samuel Morris), the founder of an independent religious group. During his early adult years, Baker was influenced by Christian Science and New Thought.  In 1912, Baker left Father Jehovia and emerged several years later as the leader of what would become the Peace Mission movement.

Baker settled first in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and then in Sayville, New York, a mostly white community on Long Island, where he lived quietly during the 1920s.  His following grew, and in 1931, when his Sayville neighbors complained about the growing attendance at meetings in his home, Father Divine was arrested and incarcerated for thirty (30) days.  When the judge who sentenced him died two days after the sentencing, Father Divine attributed the event to a supernatural intervention.  His movement commemorates this event by annually publishing accounts of "divine retribution" visited on wrongdoers. 

In 1933, Father Divine and his followers left Sayville for Harlem, where he became one of the most flamboyant leaders of the Depression era.  There he opened the first of his Heavens, the residential hotels where his teachings were practiced and where his followers could obtain food, shelter, and job opportunities, as well as spiritual and physical healing.  The movement, whose membership numbered in the tens of thousands at its height during the Great Depression, built on the principles of Americanism, brotherhood, Christianity, democracy, and Judaism, with the understanding that all "true" religions teach the same basic truths.  Members were taught not to discriminate by race, religion or color, and they lived communally as brothers and sisters.  Father Divine's teachings were codified in 1936 in the "Righteous Government Platform," which called for an end to segregation, lynching, and capital punishment. Movement members refrained from using tobacco, alcohol, narcotics, and vulgar language, and they were celibate.  Moreover, members attempted to embody, virtue, honesty, and truth.  The movement's teachings also demanded "a righteous wage in exchange for a full day's work." Members refused to accumulate debt, and they possessed neither credit nor life insurance. 

During the Depression residents of the Heavens paid the minimal fee of fifteen cents for meals and a dollar per week for sleeping quarters, a practice that allowed them to maintain their sense of dignity.  In the opinion of many, Father Divine affirmed, amid the poverty of the Depression, the abundance of God with the free lavish banquets he held daily.

Heavens were opened across North America as well as in Europe, and, although most of its adherents were African Americans, the movement also attracted many European Americans (approximately one-fourth of its membership).  The Heavens and related businesses brought in millions of dollars in revenue for the Peace Mission.  Their success, however, also brought accusations of racketeering against Father Divine that, like the allegations of child abuse that were made against the movement, proved to be unfounded.

In 1942, Father Divine moved to suburban Philadelphia, in part to avoid paying a financial judgment in a suit brought by a former movement member.  Four years later (in 1946), he married Edna Rose Ritchings, a Canadian member who, as Mother Divine, succeeded her husband as the movement's leader in 1965.  The movement's membership declined dramatically, however, not least because of the movement's strict dedication to celibacy.

Once dismissed as just another cult leader, Father Divine today is recognized in the late 20th century as an important social reformer.  In the 1930s, he was a champion of racial equality and an advocate of the economic self-sufficiency for African Americans that found broad acceptance only with the advent of the Civil Rights Movement.

A00021 - Jimmie Lee Jackson, Civil Rights Activist

Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 16, 1938 - February 26, 1965) was a civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama, and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, he was beaten by troopers and shot by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city. Jackson was unarmed; he died several days later in the hospital.

His death inspired the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major event in the American Civil Rights Movement that helped gain Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This opened the door to millions of African Americans being able to vote again in Alabama and across the South, regaining participation as citizens in the political system for the first time since the turn of the 20th century, when they were disenfranchised by state constitutions and discriminatory practices.

In 2007 former trooper Fowler was indicted in Jackson's death, and in 2010 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to six months in prison.

Jimmie Lee Jackson was a deacon of the St. James Baptist Church in Marion, Alabama, ordained in the summer of 1964. Jackson had tried to register to vote for four years, without success under the discriminatory system maintained by Alabama officials. Jackson was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr., who had come with other SCLC staff to Selma, Alabama, to help local activists in their voter registration campaign. Jackson attended meetings several nights a week at Zion's Chapel Methodist Church. His desire to vote led to his death at the hands of an Alabama State Trooper. It inspired SCLC leader James Bevel to initiate and organize the dramatic Selma to Montgomery marches, which directly contributed to President Lyndon Johnson calling for, and Congress passing, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

On the night of February 18, 1965, about 500 people organized by Southern Christian Leadership Conference activist C. T. Vivian, left Zion United Methodist Church in Marion and attempted a peaceful walk to the Perry County jail, about a half a block away, where young civil-rights worker James Orange was being held. The marchers planned to sing hymns and return to the church. Police later said that they believed the crowd was planning a jailbreak.

They were met at the Post Office by a line of Marion City police officers, sheriff's deputies, and Alabama State Troopers  During the standoff, streetlights were abruptly turned off (some sources say they were shot out by the police), and the police began to beat the protesters. Among those beaten were two United Press International photographers, whose cameras were smashed, and NBC News correspondent Richard Valeriani who was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. The marchers turned and scattered back towards the church.

Jackson, his mother Viola Jackson, and his 82-year-old grandfather, Cager Lee, ran into Mack's Café behind the church, pursued by Alabama State Troopers. Police clubbed Lee to the floor in the kitchen; when Viola attempted to pull the police off, she was also beaten. When Jackson tried to protect his mother, one trooper threw him against a cigarette machine. A second trooper shot Jackson twice in the abdomen. James Bonard Fowler later admitted to pulling the trigger, saying he thought Jackson was going for his gun. The wounded Jackson fled the café, suffering additional blows by the police, and collapsed in front of the bus station.

In the presence of FBI officials, Jackson told a lawyer, Oscar Adams of Birmingham, that he was "clubbed down" by State Troopers after he was shot and had run away from the café. Jackson died of his wounds at Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma, on February 26, 1965. 

Jackson was buried in Heard Cemetery, an old slave burial ground, next to his father, with a headstone paid for by the Perry County Civic League. 

Jackson's death led James Bevel, SCLC Director of Direct Action and the director of SCLC's Selma Voting Rights Movement, to initiate and organize the first Selma to Montgomery march to publicize the effort to gain registration and voting. Held a few days later, on March 7, 1965, the event became known as "Bloody Sunday" for the violent response of state troopers and posse, who attacked and beat the protesters after they came over the Edmund Pettus Bridge and left the city. The events captured national attention, raising widespread support for the voting rights campaign. In the third march to Montgomery, protesters traveled the entire way, and a total of 25,000 people peacefully entered the city, protected by federal troops and Alabama National Guard under federal command.

In March 1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced his federal bill to authorize oversight of local practices and enforcement by the federal government; it was passed by Congress as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After the act was passed, Jimmie Lee Jackson's grandfather Cager Lee, who had marched with him in February 1965 in Marion, voted for the first time at the age of 84.

A grand jury declined to indict Fowler in September 1965, identifying him only by his surname.

On May 10, 2007, 42 years after the crime, Fowler was charged with first degree and second-degree murder for Jackson's death, and surrendered to authorities. On November 15, 2010, Fowler pled guilty to manslaughter and apologized publicly for killing Jackson. He said he had acted in self-defense. He was sentenced to six months in jail, but served five months due to health problems which required medical surgery.

A00020 - Viola Liuzzo, Slain Civil Rights Activist

*Viola Liuzzo, a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist, was killed.

Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo (April 11, 1925 – March 25, 1965) was a Unitarian Universalist civil rights activist from Michigan. In March 1965, Liuzzo, then a housewife and mother of five with a history of local activism, heeded the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. and traveled from Detroit, Michigan to Selma, Alabama, in the wake of the Bloody Sunday attempt at marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Liuzzo participated in the successful Selma to Montgomery marches and helped with coordination and logistics. Driving back from a trip shuttling fellow activists to the Montgomery airport, she was shot by members of the Ku Klux Klan. She was 39 years old.

One of the four Klansmen in the car from which the shots were fired was Federal Bureau of Investigation  (FBI) informant Gary Rowe. Rowe testified against the shooters and was moved and given an assumed name by the FBI. The FBI later leaked what were purported to be salacious details about Liuzzo which were never proved or substantiated in any way.

Liuzzo's name is today inscribed on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. 

A00019 - Frank Crosswaith, Founder of the Negro Labor Committee

*Frank Crosswaith, a longtime socialist politician, activist, trade union organizer, and founder of the Negro Labor Committee, died.

Frank Rudolph Crosswaith (1892-1965) was a longtime socialist politician and activist and trade union organizer in New York City. Crosswaith is best remembered as the founder and chairman of the Negro Labor Committee, which was established on July 20, 1935, by the Negro Labor Conference.

Frank Crosswaith was born on July 16, 1892, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, Danish West Indies (the island was sold to the United States in 1917 and became part of the United States Virgin Islands), and emigrated to the United States in his teens. While finishing high school, he worked as an elevator operator, porter and garment worker. He joined the elevator operators' union and when he finished high school, he won a scholarship from the socialist Jewish Daily Forward to attend the Rand School of Social Science, an educational institute in New York City associated with the Socialist Party of America.

Crosswaith founded an organization called the Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers in 1925, but this work went by the wayside when Crosswaith accepted a position as an organizer for the fledgling Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Crosswaith maintained a long association with union head A. Phillip Randolph, serving with him as officers of the Negro Labor Committee in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the early 1930s Crosswaith worked as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which became one of the major supporters of the Negro Labor Committee.

In 1924, he ran on the Socialist ticket for Secretary of State of New York, and in 1936 for Congressman-at-large. He ran also for the New York City Council in 1939 on the American Labor ticket.

Crosswaith was elected to the governing executive committee of the American Labor Party in New York in 1924, and later ran for Governor of New York on the ALP ticket.

Crosswaith was an anti-communist and believed that the best hope for black workers in the United States was to join bona fide labor unions just as the best hope for the American labor movement was to welcome black workers into unions in order to promote solidarity and eliminate the use of black workers as strike breakers. He believed strongly that "separation of workers by race would only work to undermine the strength of the entire labor movement." Crosswaith spent much of his energy in the late 1930s and early 1940s battling a rival labor organization called the Harlem Labor Union, Inc., which was run by Ira Kemp and had a black nationalist philosophy. He accused Kemp of undermining the interests of black workers by signing agreements with employers that offered them labor at wages below union rates.

Crosswaith also worked with A. Philip Randolph during World War II in organizing the March on Washington Movement, which was called off when President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to sign Executive Order 8802, which prohibited racial discrimination in defense industries.

A00018 - James Reeb, Fallen Hero of the Selma Marches

*James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister, pastor, and civil rights activist, died from head injuries suffered from being severely beaten while participating in the Selma Voting Rights Movement.

James Reeb (January 1, 1927 – March 11, 1965) was an American Unitarian Universalist minister and a pastor and civil rights activist in Washington, D.C. While participating in the Selma Voting Rights marches in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, he was beaten severely by white segregationists and died of head injuries two days later in the hospital. He was 38 years old.

Reeb was born on January 1, 1927 in Wichita, Kansas, to Mae (Fox) and Harry Reeb.  He was raised in Kansas and Casper, Wyoming.  He graduated from St. Olaf College and attended Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey and ordained a Presbyterian ministers after graduation. 

A member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Reeb came to Selma to join protests for African American voting rights following the attack by state troopers and sheriff's deputies on nonviolent demonstrators on March 7, 1965. After eating dinner at an integrated restaurant March 9, Reeb and two other Unitarian ministers Reverend Clark Olsen and Reverend Orloff Miller, were attacked and beaten by white men armed with clubs. Several hours elapsed before Reeb was admitted to a Birmingham hospital where doctors performed brain surgery. While Reeb was on his way to the hospital in Birmingham, Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed a press conference lamenting the ‘‘cowardly’’ attack and asking all to pray for his protection. Reeb died two days later. His death resulted in a national outcry against the activities of white racists in the Deep South.

Reeb’s death provoked mourning throughout the country, and tens of thousands held vigils in his honor. President Johnson called Reeb’s widow and father to express his condolences, and on March 15  he invoked Reeb’s memory when he delivered a draft of the Voting Rights Act to Congress. 

In April 1965, three white men were indicted for Reeb’s murder; they were acquitted that December. The Voting Rights Act was passed on August 6, 1965.

A00017 - Jacob Selebi, South African Police Commissioner Convicted of Corruption

Jacob (Jackie) Sello Selebi was born on March 7, 1950 in Johannesburg.  Selebi was the African National Congress (ANC) representative to the Soviet Union's World Federation of Democratic Youth in Budapest, Hungary, from 1983 to 1987. In 1987, he was elected as leader of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) while in exile in Zambia. In the same year, he was appointed to the National Executive Committee of the ANC.

In 1991, Selebi was responsible for the repatriation of ANC exiles back to South Africa. After returning from exile, Selebi was one of the ANC’s acclaimed civil servants. 

In 1993, he was appointed the head of the ANC’s Department of Welfare. After South Africa’s first democratic elections, in 1994, Selebi became an ANC Member of Parliament. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed South Africa’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, a post that saw him chair two key UN sessions, the 54th session of the Human Rights Commission and the Oslo Diplomatic Conference on a Convention Banning Anti-Personnel Landmines. From 1995 to 1998, Selebi served as the South African Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

In 1998, Selebi was appointed Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria, a post he held until 1999. He had a distinguished career as a diplomat. In addition, in 1998, Selebi received a Human Rights Award from the International Service for Human Rights.

Former president Thabo Mbeki appointed him as the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service on January 1, 2000 as successor to the then National Police Commissioner, George Fivaz, whose term of office expired at the end of January 2000.

Selebi was elected Vice - President of Interpol (African region) in 2002, as post he held until 2004 and was elected INTERPOL President from 2004 and served until January 12, 2008.

On September 10, 2007, the National Prosecuting Authority issued a warrant of arrest for Selebi for corruption, fraud, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice.

In 2007, Selebi was strongly criticized for responding to concerns within the country over South Africa's rising crime rate with the comment "What's all the fuss about crime?" In March of the same year, Selebi was also criticized for his suggestion to legalize prostitution and public drinking for the duration of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to be hosted in South Africa. Opposition political parties and Doctors for Life International (a non-governmental organisation) expressed dismay at Selebi's recommendation and called on Parliament not to legalize prostitution or public drinking.

Following this, on January 12, 2008, then President Mbeki effectively suspended Selebi via an "extended leave of absence," and appointed Timothy Charles Williams as acting National Commissioner of Police. In January 2008, Selebi was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner, and resigned as President of Interpol, after he was charged with corruption in South Africa.

After several postponements, Selebi’s trial began in earnest on April 8, 2010; nearly two years after the charges were first filed.

Selebi admitted to a friendship with convicted drug smuggler, Glenn Agliotti, who was a suspect in the murder of mining magnate, Brett Kebble, and was involved in a large drug deal and organized crime. Despite being head of police at the time, Selebi claimed that he was not aware that his friend was involved with crime.

During the trial, Agliotti told the court that he had paid Selebi over R1.2 million in bribes since 2000. He maintained that he had first met Selebi in 1990, when he  (Selebi) asked for money to pay for medical bills. Agliotti further testified that he and Selebi would go shopping together and all Selebi’s purchases would be charged to Agliotti's account.

Selebi was found guilty of corruption on July 2, 2010, but not guilty of further charges of perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on August 3, 2010.  On December 2, 2011,  the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) unanimously overturned his appeal against his sentence, and ordered that he begin his 15-year jail sentence immediately. Judge Joffe found that Selebi had shown "complete contempt for the truth", including falsely accusing a witness of lying during the trial. The Judge added that Selebi had a low moral fibre and could not be relied upon.

Selebi collapsed at his Waterkloof home while watching the ruling on television. He began his fifteen-year prison term the following day.

An 11-member medical parole advisory board met on June 20, 2012 and recommended the release of six offenders, including Selebi, who needed dialysis for kidney failure. Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele made the announcement at a press conference in Pretoria. "Six offenders were recommended for medical parole. Of these, two of the offenders were respectively released on the 9th and 12 of July 2012," said Ndebele. Selebi was released on medical parole having served just 219 days of his fifteen-year sentence. He remained at home in Waterkloof where he received dialysis for his kidney illness until his death. 

Jacob Sello (Jackie) Selebi died on January 23, 2015 at the age of 64.