Johnny Brown, the daddy of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, died on Wednesday, based on an obituary revealed within the Miami Herald on Friday afternoon. He was 80 years outdated.
Jackson appeared on Tuesday evening in a dialog on the College of Alaska Fairbanks. Alaska Public Media reported that the tip of her go to “got here abruptly and and not using a clear motive,” whereas an Alaskan television station indicated that Jackson’s look was “reduce brief” “after a liaison knowledgeable her of a private emergency.”
In her 2024 memoir, Lovely One, Jackson described her father’s life intimately. Brown had a “rock[y]” begin in life as one among 5 kids of a divorced mom who labored as a home cleaner and nurse’s aide, Jackson recounted. However after graduating from a segregated highschool in Miami, Brown put himself by means of Kentucky State and North Carolina Central College, two traditionally Black universities.
Brown married Ellery Ross, a former highschool classmate and the sister of two mates, in 1968. The couple spent a number of years as public college lecturers in Washington, D.C., earlier than returning to Florida in order that Brown might attend regulation college on the College of Miami. He would finally develop into the lead lawyer for the Miami-Dade County Public Colleges.
In her memoir, Jackson credit Brown together with her curiosity within the regulation, writing that he “would generally search for from his textbooks to speak to me about his instances, to ask me what I assumed, as if I weren’t 4 years outdated. The conundrums he described fascinated me; they have been tales of individuals in hassle, battle, or sorrow, looking for the even-handed recourse of the regulation. I might first encounter my calling in that tiny kitchen in a small household condo on the far fringe of the College of Miami’s campus.”
Really helpful Quotation: Amy Howe, Johnny Brown, Justice Jackson’s father, passes away at 80, SCOTUSblog (Jul. 17, 2026, 5:57 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/07/johnny-brown-justice-jacksons-father-passes-away-at-80/