Byran Jackson; Academic Studied Urban Minorities

Byran Jackson, a widely quoted academician who spent years researching the ethnic politics of Los Angeles, concluding that City Hall is “a very cozy, comfortable, old boys’ network . . . detached from this big mass of folks they call the population,” is dead.

J. Theodore Anagnoson, chairman of the political science department at Cal State L.A., said his colleague was 38 when he died Sunday in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a stroke and seizure.

Jackson’s interest in how municipalities treat minorities began with his senior thesis at East Texas State University. He called it “Black Political Participation in the City of Dallas,” the first of many cities that came under his scrutiny.

He was a social science research analyst for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and an equal opportunity specialist for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Dallas.

After receiving his doctorate at the University of Michigan in political science and public policy in 1982, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis, leaving there in 1986 for Cal State L.A.

He contributed to many political science conferences in the United States and abroad and headed the Committee on the Status of Black Americans for the Western Political Science Assn.

He became a frequent spokesman for the African-American movement in Los Angeles and over the years contributed to Time, Newsweek and several newspapers, including The Times.

Last month, The Times referred to him as an “upcoming California political pundit.”

He is survived by his mother, Lula Mae, his father, William, four brothers and a sister.

A service is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Mt. Tabor Memorial Baptist Church in Los Angeles.