Alphonse Jackson, Jr. is a retired educator and a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives

Louisiana State Legislature

The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...

, where he represented District 2. He was a charter member of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus when it formed in 1977.

Prior to and during his legislative service he was active in the civil rights movement

Civil rights movement

The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

, working in consort with black dentist

Dentist

A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...

 Louis Pendleton

Louis Pendleton

Louis Christopher Pendleton was an African American dentist, businessman, and civic leader in Shreveport, Louisiana, who organized the civil rights movement in his city through the formation of the interest group known as "Blacks United for Lasting Leadership", which successfully lobbied for...

 and white school board leader Don W. Williamson

Don W. Williamson

Donald Wayne Williamson, usually known as Don Williamson , is a semiretired American businessman in Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish and the largest city in north Louisiana, who served in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature between 1968 and 1980...

 in Shreveport and surrounding Caddo and Bossier

Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, a 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War...

 parishes.

As a legislator, Jackson opposed the Balanced Treatment Act regarding the teaching of creation science

Creation science

Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...

 and evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 in Louisiana public schools. The law was written by a Shreveport colleague, State Senator

Louisiana State Legislature

The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...

 Bill P. Keith

Bill Keith (Louisiana politician)

Billy P. Keith, known as Bill Keith , is an author of fiction and nonfiction in Longview, Texas, who served from 1980 to 1984 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate...

. It was struck down in 1987 by the United States Supreme Court in the decision Edwards v. Aguillard

Edwards v. Aguillard

Edwards v. Aguillard, was a legal case about the teaching of creationism that was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, was unconstitutional because the law...

.

Alphonse and his wife, the former Glenda Hurst, live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has two daughters: Angela Eileen Jackson and Lydia Patrice Jackson

Lydia P. Jackson

Lydia Patrice Jackson is an African American Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from Shreveport, Louisiana. Since 2004, Jackson has represented the 39th District in Caddo Parish in the far northwestern corner of her state....

 and one stepdaughter, Andrea Archie. Lydia represents District 39 (Caddo Parish) in the [state Senate, having been elected in 2003 to succeed fellow African American Democrat Gregory Tarver

Gregory Tarver

Gregory Williams Tarver, Sr., known as Greg Tarver , is an African American businessman and Democratic politician in Shreveport, Louisiana, who served on the Shreveport City Council from 1978 to 1984 and as a Louisiana state senator from the predominantly black District 39 in Caddo Parish from 1984...

, a Shreveport business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

man. Tarver had defeated Keith for the seat in 1983, when African Americans became the majority of voters in the district.

Alphonse Jackson is the eponym of the Alphonse Jackson Early Childhood Center in Shreveport.