Making history every step of his way: JacQuez Johnson, Thomasville city councilor
{JacQuez Johnson in his new chair as an elected member of Thomasville’s city council. Submitted photo.}
As a toddler, JacQuez Johnson’s world turned upside down, but he’s been righting it ever since.
His father was shot and killed in Winston-Salem when Johnson was three years old. Initially, he and his family, including two siblings, moved to Greensboro before his Thomasville grandparents, Rose and Willie Manning, took in all three children in to raise while their mother struggled with her own battles.
In previous stories about Johnson, it has been noted that he could have become an entirely different person with his start in life. And yet, throughout his life he has been making headlines and his positive outlook has never wavered. in 2021 he ran as the youngest candidate ever for the city council and fell only 66 votes short.
And this past fall, he won the election and became the youngest Black person elected to Thomasville’s council. No plans to stop there, either, with his eye on his former mentor and friend Mayor Raleigh York’s chair. Johnson worked as an intern for York while in high school, which only cemented his servant’s heart and desire to leave his community better than he found it.
Family has been and will continue to be essential to city council member JacQuez Johnson. At his swearing in ceremony, he was surrounded by family members Tia Dewalt, Jaquan Braddy, Jadarious Johnson, Zion Johnson, Rose Manning, Willie Manning, Toni Bascom, Megan Silvey and Timothy Warren. Submitted photo.
His positive attitude is irrepressible, with a smile that others cannot help but reflect. When he is engaged in a conversation with someone, he gives them his whole attention, and is thoughtful before replying.
Asked why Thomasville, he was quiet for a moment.
“It’s my home, it is my family, and it is a place i fell in love with many years ago,” he said. “This community supported me and the dreams i have had, and I want to give that back. I believe in what Thomasville can be, and i know it is my responsibility to help it get there.”
His focus is also on the younger generation, which he believes “is going to make a tremendous difference, because they are learning to stand up and say no, to speak out for things that are important to all of us.” And he is determined that, particularly for young Black community members, history is an essential part of the change and they should have access to it.
“Our side of history has not always been known to them,” he said in a recent interview. “They need to know it all. I don’t just mean the Black side of things, though that is essential, but it all matters.” He noted that ancestry is far more challenging for Black Americans than white, in most cases because during slavery, few, if any personal records were kept of slaves. Many Black residents can get back perhaps two, maybe three generations before reaching a dead end. But they can still learn about the stories of life for their ancestors.
While he is committed to leadership for both Thomasville and Davidson County as a whole, he is not doing it just through politics. He is now in his second year of teaching English to upperclassmen at Thomasville High School, from which he graduated at the top of his class as student body president. And in his students he sees the future, in spite of being just 24 himself.
Part of helping others avoid having to deal with history like his is teaching empathy, something he thinks the younger generation does not always have. Empathy is not automatic, and he worries that the world is not teaching the younger generations how to care for each other and their communities.
In his English classes, he believes he reaches his students with honesty, about the books they read, about the expectations of his class, and in his relationship with them.
“I do have expectations, but I also know they have lives, and at their age, something that adults can take in stride they can’t always,” he said. “But I am here to listen, to help them if I can, and to treat them fairly.” He says he realizes not every book will capture every student, but he tries to help them see that there are some books worth reading even if they are not favorites. Some contain important information for a student’s development, and some are good examples of particular types of work. Learning how to discern what is important, how to take something beneficial away from everything, is a skill that will always serve them well, he said.
As a city council member, he went through a list of several things he thinks are important right now, but says he is open to constituents and their concerns most of all.
“Listening is the most important thing I do,” he said. “In all my roles.”
Each month the city of Thomasville has a different council member serve as Mayor Pro Tempore, and Johnson’s first month is coming up in April.
“I’m looking forward to all steps in this process,” he said, “and have faith I can make meaningful contributions.”
In recognition of his service to his community again and again in his less than a quarter century of life, Johnson was recently awarded one of two Beloved Community Awards from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Social Action Committee. He received the award during the annual MLK-SAC oratorical contest, in which he participated in 2018. His reaction was to reiterate a phrase he has become synonymous with.
“I am incredibly honored to be one of the recipients of the 2024 MLK-SAC Beloved Community Awards,” he said. “I have dedicated my life to being the change I want to see in my community.”
Asked if he thought his father would be proud of the man he has become, his answer was short, and came with a beaming smile.
“I know he is.”
