We had been talking about his growing up in Columbus and where he went to school, when I asked Fredrick Jackson what got him into politics. He held up his hand.
“First, let’s talk about my wife,” he said.
On Tuesday, Jackson, 33, unseated incumbent Marty Turner in the Ward 4 Democratic runoff. At 32 (he’s since had a birthday) he’s among the youngest elected to the council. (Jackie Evans was 29 when she was elected to the council and another Fred, Fred Hayslett, was 32.)
Jackson is married to Tenita Ash-Jackson; they have three children. It can be argued their meeting, a life-threatening medical issue in the eighth grade and the death of his grandfather have been the forces that have shaped his life.
“We were in the same class (Columbus High, Class of ’02) and never looked at each other,” Jackson says about the woman who would become his wife.
When he moved back to town in 2006 after spending two years in Georgia earning phlebotomist certification, Jackson bumped into his classmate. Two years later they were married. They have three children and a home in East Columbus. Tenita is a materials planner for PACCAR.
After working for five years as a phlebotomist (a medical technician who takes blood) at Baptist Memorial, Jackson went to work selling Allstate Insurance for a local agency. He teaches phlebotomy part time at EMCC.
In the eighth grade Jackson suffered an extreme case of ulcerated colitis, a debilitating bowel disease. Doctors didn’t expect him to live. He was home schooled that year. “That experience made me grateful for life,” he said. “I feel like I’m on an assignment.”
Since entering the insurance business, Jackson has had four opportunities to move to Georgia and open his own insurance office. Though he couldn’t say why at the time, he refused each offer.
When his grandfather, Carzell Thomas, a Vietnam veteran, died in September, Fredrick began to understand why he stuck around.
The son of a single mother living in Morningside Housing Project, Jackson was raised by his grandparents, who lived near Columbus Air Force Base.
His voice quivers when he talks about his grandfather’s death.
“He was the backbone of my life,” Jackson said. “He was the gentleman who set the boundaries. He was a father figure.”
Jackson had viewed his grandfather as the leader in his family. Now it was his time.
“So that is what got you thinking about politics?” I asked, returning to my question.
Jackson leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. He works out of a small windowless office in a suite of offices at the north end of Holly Hills Plaza. Jackson is slender, 6-feet tall and on this casual Friday he was wearing dark blue Levis and a brightly colored plaid shirt. He is unfailingly polite and speaks with precision.
“Losing the leader in my life and seeing the direction our city was headed ignited the leadership role in me,” he said.
“Our city has gotten to a stagnant place where people are accepting life as it comes. They’re involved, but they’re not involved enough.”
Jackson, who will be sworn in on July 1, would like schools providing an education more suited to their needs and abilities of children. “We need to make sure these kids are properly equipped,” he said. “We can’t always blame the school system for disappointments. The community needs to step up.”
He would also like to see the city act with more deliberation and openness in making board appointments. “I think the interview process needs to be more public and more thorough,” he says. “We have qualified individuals we’ve overlooked.”
The sometimes-volatile issue of race is a non-issue for Jackson.
“I can see where individuals treat race as an issue in our city,” he said. “That’s not who I am. They cut me; they cut you; we both bleed red.”
How Fredrick Jackson will fare in this, his first foray into the public arena, remains to be seen. He is young, thoughtful and wants to make his hometown a better place. He has a tough job ahead of him, one that requires patience, compromise and an open mind.
He has a lot going for him, though; not the least of which is the memory of a grandfather, whose legacy he no doubt wants to honor.
Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.
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