![\"Ellery](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_Judge_2__2_1_24M4NP6U_L716530514.JPG\" "\\"Ellery")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Ellery Brown, Johnny Brown, parents of Ketanji Brown Jackson and Ketajh Brown, brother of Justice Jackson arrive on the South Lawn of the White House for an event with President Joe Biden, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Vice President Kamala Harris, on April 8, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura\/Los Angeles Times\/TNS)<\/p>\n
Kent Nishimura<\/p>\n
TNS<\/p>\n
Johnny Brown, a longtime attorney for Miami-Dade County Public Schools and father of Supreme Court of the United States Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson<\/a>, died Wednesday from natural causes. He was 80 years old.<\/p>\n Brown worked for the school district\u2019s legal office for more than 20 years, rising to become the district\u2019s top attorney from 1999 to 2005.<\/p>\n He is survived by his wife, Ellery, two children \u2013 Justice Jackson as well as Ketajh Brown, a Chicago-based attorney \u2013 two grandchildren Talia and Leila, his sister Carrie Mae Stone and his son-in-law Patrick Jackson.<\/p>\n Ellery Brown also worked for many years in Miami-Dade\u2019s public school system, leading New World School of the Arts, a public magnet high school and college, from 1993 to 2007.<\/p>\n Brown is remembered as a \u201cquiet and reserved spirit,\u201d dedicated to both his legal profession and the wellbeing of his family, according to his brother-in-law Calvin Ross, former City of Miami Chief of Police.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wasn\u2019t a brother-in-law, he was really a brother. Other folk may have seen him from the business side or from a different social setting, but I was able to see him from a very personal standpoint. Though he was not a blood brother, if I had to choose my brother, he would have been one that I would have chosen,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n Brown was also an inspiration to Jackson in her legal journey, which led her to the highest court in the country when she was confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States bench<\/a> in 2022. Jackson made history as the first-ever Black woman appointed to the role.<\/p>\n In her memoir, \u201cLovely One,\u201d Jackson recalled engaging with Brown about the law while he studied for exams at the University of Miami School of Law. After spending several years as a teacher in Washington, D.C., where he helped design an African American history curriculum that was later incorporated into the district\u2019s standard history course, the family moved back to Miami on the outskirts of campus.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to be just like the ebony-skinned, gentle-voiced man who would sometimes look up from his textbooks to talk to me about his cases, to ask me what I thought, as if I weren\u2019t four years old. The conundrums he described fascinated me; they were stories of people in trouble, conflict, or sorrow, seeking the even-handed recourse of the law,\u201d Jackson wrote.<\/p>\n Miami roots<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s family moved from the small town of Fitzgerald, Georgia, to Liberty City in the 1950s. He met members of the Ross family, including his wife, while attending Miami Northwestern High School.<\/p>\n According to Jackson\u2019s memoir, Ellery was the statistician for the basketball team on which Brown starred.<\/p>\n Brown, the first in his family to attend college<\/a>, initially attended Kentucky State University, but decided to transfer to North Carolina Central University. In Miami over winter break he mentioned to Ellery\u2019s brother that he needed someone to type up his transfer application essay. That brother recommended Ellery.<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents\u2019 story flowed from there,\u201d Jackson wrote.<\/p>\n The family eventually settled in South Miami-Dade in the 1970. Jackson attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School<\/a> in Pinecrest where she excelled in speech and debate<\/a> and was elected student body president. She went on to attend Harvard University for her undergraduate studies and law school.<\/p>\n Ross described Brown as a caring father, referring to him as \u201can encourager.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalled when Brown arranged for Ross to discuss a career in law enforcement with his son, Ketajh. Ketajh later spent several years as a detective with the Baltimore Police Department before becoming an attorney.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wasn\u2019t there to drive them, but to support them, and that, to me, was the real hallmark of a supporting parent \u2014 one that allows their children to pursue their dreams and is there to support them, not making them do something.\u201d<\/p>\n In her memoir, Jackson described her parents\u2019 core values as \u201chard work, a belief in the vastness of individual potential, and fierce pride in the journey and legacy of Black Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Ross admired that Brown always kept a cool head.<\/p>\n \u201cHe certainly enjoyed a good argument, but never to the point of becoming angry. I just can\u2019t ever recall him becoming angry… That was not Johnny. That was not him at all,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n Brown also had an edge to him, as evidenced by the many times he and Ross played cards. Games like tonk, bid whist and poker were favorites.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a ruthless card player, to say the least. His focus and his intent was on winning \u2014 and he did a lot of that,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n Ross, who was also Florida\u2019s Secretary of Juvenile Justice under former governor Lawton Chiles, added that he and Brown largely kept their high-stakes work at the office when spending time as a family. They would go on fishing trips to catch snapper in the Florida Keys and hold bible study in each other\u2019s homes. Work was put to the side at those times.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t talk shop. \u2026 We had more important things to talk about, like, \u2018What\u2019s the card game for the day?\u2019 or \u2018Who made the macaroni and cheese,\u2019\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n Before joining the school district\u2019s legal office in 1983, Brown worked as a corporate attorney, first for Burger King, then in commercial real estate for Pantry Pride, a now-defunct supermarket chain.<\/p>\n According to a 1999 Herald story, Brown was selected as lead attorney for the district in a tight 5-4 vote over another senior attorney at the district.<\/p>\n Brown helped the district navigate a period of growth as well as funding cuts from Tallahassee. With a background in commercial real estate, he assisted the school board in pursuing several construction projects during that period. He faced attacks from some school board members who tried to remove him from his position amid controversies over certain land deals and bureaucratic issues. However, each of those efforts failed.<\/p>\n Marta Perez, a former school board member who served the entirety of Brown\u2019s time as the top attorney, said those votes reflected divisions and factions within the board more than anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no real controversy with him, except in the inside baseball of the board,\u201d Perez recalled.<\/p>\n Perez voted for Brown\u2019s hiring and recalled him as \u201cvery nice and very personable.\u201d<\/p>\n Luis Garcia, current deputy general counsel with the school district, worked under Brown for the entirety of his six-year tenure as lead attorney. Garcia called him a \u201cgreat supervisor,\u201d and a \u201cfamily first\u201d role model who didn\u2019t let the pressure-cooker nature of the job get to him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was unfazed by the job of being a school board attorney, which is very demanding,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n No formal service has been scheduled for Brown. A family spokesperson told the Herald a family gathering will take place in Miami \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published July 17, 2026 at 3:16 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ellery Brown, Johnny Brown, parents of Ketanji Brown Jackson and Ketajh Brown, brother of Justice Jackson arrive on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-344134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Johnny Brown, then the school board\u2019s chief attorney, pictured at a 2003 school board meeting. Jared Lazarus\/Herald staff <\/p>\n
Johnny Brown, pictured with Ketanji Brown Jackson as a young child. Ketanji Brown Jackson <\/p>\n
Johnny Brown pictured with his daughter Ketanji Brown Jackson at her 1996 wedding at Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove. Ketanji Brown Jackson <\/p>\n
Johnny Brown, pictured in his Miami-Dade County Public Schools office. Ketanji Brown Jackson <\/p>\n