JACKSON, LEO ALBERT (10 March 1920 – 19 April 1996) was an AFRICAN AMERICAN civic leader who played an important role in Cleveland as a lawyer, city councilman, and jurist from the 1950s until his retirement over three decades later.
Judge Leo Jackson was born Lake City, Florida, the 15th child of William and Hattie Howard. He grew up in Orlando where his mother, a strong supporter of education, encouraged him to complete high school and to enter college. He was the only one of his siblings to graduate from high school, Jones High: one of only 4 high schools that blacks could attend in the state. He was a member of the ninth class at Jones High. His success in, and graduation from high school impelled him to enter college. He earned a B.A. at Morehouse College: the historically Black institution where Jackson later stated he first felt pride in his African American heritage. He would go on to earn his master’s degree at Atlanta University. During his education and subsequent career Jackson became acquainted with many major figures involved in struggle for Civil Rights. He was a mentee of Morehouse President Benjamin Mays, (known as the architect of the modern Civil Rights Movement), and later, at Atlanta University he became acquainted with Dr. W. E. B. DuBois.
Jackson completed his M.A. in 1946, and after a brief return to Florida, he moved to Cleveland to study law at CLEVELAND-MARSHALL. Working as a postal clerk by day to fund his studies by night, Jackson received his J.D. in 1950 and entered private practice. In 1954, he became involved in the GLENVILLE Area Community Council. Glenville became his home and he played a critical role in working to make it a safe and stable neighborhood. His actions were credited for achieving a 20% reduction in crime after securing better police communications, encouraging resident vigilance, and helping close illegal and unruly drinking establishments. Jackson became popular figure in the community, and 1,200 residents drafted him to run for city council as the 24th ward representative. Thus, Jackson started his career as a public servant in 1957 with an upset victory against Harry T. Marshall, a White Republican and City Council minority leader.
Jackson, who never considered himself a “politician” but rather a public servant, was a Democrat with a keen interest in housing and communal issues. Key to this was his handling of issues relating to a growing African American migration to Cleveland which had resulted in exploitation and restriction in terms of rental and home ownership in neighborhoods such as Glenville. As representative of this multi-racial district with a large -White and Black- middle class population, Jackson had a keen interest in guarding against these processes. Sourcing these issues to blockbusting real estate practices, slumlords (absentee owners who paid little attention to the properties they rented), overcrowded dwellings, unlicensed bars and other illegal activities, Jackson worked to combat their spread by uncovering cases of illegal housing conversions and publicizing them in the local press. These efforts generated a new building code and increased attention on housing inspections.
Jackson also believed that Black communities needed higher and more equitable police involvement. He noted: “a Negro who cuts a Negro gets a slap on the hand fine. A Negro who cuts a White man gets the book… We have to take steps against the relaxation of law enforcement that leads to a high crime rate and all the things that stigmatize us…”
Jackson’s criticisms of Black individuals who were slumlords and unlicensed bar-keepers, and his view of some aspects of migrant behavior, made him somewhat controversial in in some Black circles. However, he retained strong support from members of both Cleveland’s white and middle-class Black communities, for whom Jackson’s grass-roots and aggressive enforcement of housing laws promised to maintain stability in the Glenville community.
In 1961, after four years of service in City Council, Jackson was offered an appointment as a Municipal Judge by Governor Michael V. DiSalle. He declined the appointment. It was a move that some African Americans felt to be problematic. Yet, councilman Jackson felt that he was needed in his ward, even though the appointment would have tripled his salary from $5,000 a year (plus $2,000 from his part time legal practice) to $15,000. In 1963, Jackson similarly declined a posting as the Director of Health and Welfare under mayor RALPH S. LOCHER, which would have also about tripled his income. Detractors of the councilman felt that, perhaps, Jackson was playing a political long game, presenting himself as an honest ‘people’s servant’. Yet, his loyalty was firmly cemented in the ward he represented. His growing citywide public profile, however, was inescapable. By 1965, he was being floated (absent his permission) as a potential mayoral candidate, along with NAACP chapter president Clarence H. Holmes and state representative CARL B. STOKES.
It was in the administration of Carl Stokes, who successfully ran for mayor in 1967, that Jackson, given his community work in Glenville, became the chairman of the city council’s Urban Renewal and Community Development committees. In these positions he focused more widely on city problems and promoted issues, such as better home insurance policies, which he felt would stop urban flight from the city to the suburbs. By this time Jackson had the respect of both his advocates and detractors, earning him the nickname of “Leo the Lionhearted”. He was characterized by the city’s two major newspapers as “independent, honest, and fearless” and “a man of vision”.
In 1970 Jackson ran for and was elected to the Eighth District Ohio Court of Appeals. He served the court for three terms and twice served as Chief Judge. He also served by special assignment as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court. While on the Court of Appeals he authored hundreds of decisions that affected a variety of legal issues and topics. Judge Leo Jackson retired from the court in 1987 and was honored by the Ohio State Bar Association and was chosen as an Alumnus of the Year of the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association.
Outside of his work Judge Jackson was active in a number of local organizations. He was a member of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Greater Cleveland Hospital Association; served on the boards of trustees of ST. VINCENT CHARITY HOSPITAL and FOREST CITY HOSPITAL and also was a member of the executive committee of the YMCA.
Jackson and his wife Gilberta raised two children, Linda and Leonard.
Judge Leo Jackson is buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
Justin Evans
Finding aid for the Leo A. Jackson Papers. WRHS.