Alphonso Jackson
| Alphonso Jackson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 13th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development | |
|
In office March 31, 2004 – April 18, 2008 |
|
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Mel Martínez |
| Succeeded by | Steve Preston |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 9, 1945 Marshall, Texas, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education |
Truman State University (BA) Washington University (JD) |
Alphonso R. Jackson (born September 9, 1945) served as the 13th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 28, 2004 and confirmed by the Senate on March 31, 2004. Jackson announced his resignation on March 31, 2008.
Jackson was born on September 9, 1945, in Marshall, Texas, and grew up in South Dallas as the youngest of twelve children in the family. His mother was a midwife, while his father sometimes worked as many as three jobs—as a foundry worker, janitor, and landscaper—to make ends meet.
Jackson attended Truman State University and studied political science there. He went on to earn a master's degree in education administration from the school in 1969. But instead of taking a teaching job, Jackson enrolled in Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
In March 1965, Jackson, then a college freshman, participated in the first civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama that became known as Bloody Sunday.
Jackson began his professional career in St. Louis, as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. In 1977 he was named the city's director of public safety. He became executive director of the St. Louis Housing Authority four years later, a job he held until 1983. He left it to work as a consultant to a St. Louis accounting firm and intensified his political activities. Active in both Democratic and Republican circles in the city for many years, he even ran for a spot as St. Louis's municipal revenue collector. He also worked for the U.S. Senate campaign of Jack Danforth, a Republican. His rising profile earned him the attention of officials in Washington, and in 1987 he was made the director of the U.S. Department of Public and Assisted Housing for Washington, D.C.
In 1989 Jackson was tapped to take over the Housing Authority of the City of Dallas as its president and chief executive officer. He was the first African American to lead the formerly troubled agency, which had become the target of discrimination lawsuits. In his seven years on the job, Jackson was credited with fixing the problems within the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA) and improving conditions for the city's poorest residents, who turned to it for help in a time of need. He worked to improve the run-down buildings and unsafe conditions that had become standard in the city's aging public-housing units, and also arranged deals that improved neighborhood conditions. He managed to find funds for a commercial development project, for example, that brought the first supermarket back to a struggling West Dallas neighborhood in several years.
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