Obituary: Johnny Jackson, Jr.

Former City Council member and State Representative Johnny Jackson died January 24 after a long battle with cancer.
Johnny Jackson, Jr. grew up in several New Orleans neighborhoods and became a community activist in the 1960s. After Hurricane Betsy in 1965, he worked on a clean-up crew at the Desire Community Center and within a few years he was the directing head of the center. He also worked with Total Community Action and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. He served in the state legislature from 1972 to 1986, where he became the New Orleans delegation’s floor leader.
During his eight-year tenure on the Council, Jackson was at the forefront of championing LGBT+ rights. In addition to leading the Louisiana
delegation in the historic 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Jackson also sponsored, and led the fight for, the historic non-discrimination ordinance adopted by the City Council in 1991. He also fought for adequate HIV/AIDS funding as well as for the extension of health benefits to the partners of lesbian and gay city employees.
A city ordinance outlawing discrimination against homosexuals in employment, housing and public places had first been proposed, and defeated, in 1984. After Jackson’s election to the Council in 1986, he introduced and sponsored the ordinance again. On the day of the vote, Jackson gave a rousing twenty-minute speech in support of the ordinance. Unfortunately, it failed to pass by a vote of two to five. After the ordinance’s defeat, Jackson continued to work closely with LAGPAC leaders and he introduced the measure again in 1991. After six hours of heated debate, the ordinance passed by a vote of five to two.
In addition to shepherding the non-discrimination ordinance to passage, Jackson was a vocal advocate for AIDS funding. He served on a council subcommittee to work with the City Health Department and local AIDS agencies and was once arrested in a sit-in on Loyola Avenue to protest a lack of proper funding to study AIDS and help AIDS patients.
Recalling his long friendship with Jackson, local activist Stewart Butler said, “He was an incredibly great man.”