Henry “Hank” Jackson, proprietor and patriarch of family-owned Hank’s Mini Market, a community hub in Hyde Park, has died at 85.
Jackson died last month at his home in View Park-Windsor Hills, according to his family.
Born in Shreveport, La., and raised in Dallas, Jackson moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and worked in finance at Lockheed-Martin for 37 years. But the itch to own his own business was always present. After clocking out of his full-time job, Jackson worked nights at local liquor stores, eventually working his way up to become a manager at Slauson Liquor.
Jackson purchased Hank’s Mini Market in Hyde Park in 1997, when he was 57 years old and when the South L.A. neighborhood was still recovering from the L.A. riots and hardly seen as a destination for reinvestment. But Jackson, who lived with his family nearby, saw potential.
“Most people would be winding down or thinking about retirement, and he’s going off on this really risky venture,” said his daughter Amy Jackson. “I think for him it just really mattered about having something of your own that you could really bring all of yourself to. He always used to say, ‘Why rent something when you can buy it?’”
His daughter Kelli Jackson added, “He has this history of showing up and serving the community for decades beyond and before Hank’s Mini Market.”
Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell adjourned a Board of Supervisors meeting in Jackson’s memory on Oct. 21. “During a period of disinvestment when South L.A. communities were increasingly overlooked and underserved, Mr. Jackson made the courageous decision to open Hank’s Mini Market near Florence and 11th avenues,” Mitchell said. “While many businesses were leaving the area, he chose to stay and invest.”
The clientele at the liquor store was varied, but Hank “could make a friend out of anybody,” according to Amy. She recalled one customer who returned to the store years later, hoping to thank Hank for all of his encouragement. “He was going through a hard time, I don’t think he could find a job. Years later, he came back and he had found a job and was doing well.”
Hank stepped back from daily operations in 2017 to focus on his other passion and pastime: golf.
“Naturally, over time, he was spending more time on the golf course and my sister, my mom and I were the ones in the space,” said Kelli.
Kelli was finishing a master’s degree in public art at USC around the same time her father retired. Originally she had planned to move on from the store after completing the program, but as she developed a thesis on the Black history of Hyde Park and its surrounding communities, she began to understand the impact of her family’s market.
“I realized that there’s beauty in this space, in this community,” she said. “And I’m so grateful that my dad saw the beauty [and thought] to invest in this community in 1997.”
She partnered with the L.A. Food Policy Council and Sweetgreen, who assisted with a full store redesign that provided more room for community events, and helped bring in fresh produce and other healthy items to combat food inequality in the area.
“There’s this big thread between the way that I’m doing things and the way that he did things, and [there’s] nothing really different but the times and the way that I do it,” said Kelli. “We do farmers market produce giveaways, but my dad at that time was giving people credit and helping them out in their time of need.”
Kelli reopened Hank’s Mini Market in March 2019, with a new exterior, colorful produce on display and shelves stocked with small, local brands, with a focus on art and community. Just one month later, it became a hub for healing when it hosted a tribute for Nipsey Hussle, a rapper, entrepreneur and activist from the Crenshaw District who was slain in the parking lot of his Marathon Clothing store, roughly one mile from the market.
“I felt like it was important for a Black business in South L.A. to support and bring the community together to remember and reflect on Nipsey Hussle … the visionary of Slauson and Crenshaw. That part really inspired me to what we’re building here,” Kelli said in a video posted to the market’s Instagram.
Kelli said that her father’s decision to purchase the store rather than enter a tenant-landlord agreement has allowed the market to weather a turbulent economy, including the 2009 recession and COVID pandemic.
“That was something that was very important to him. Not just to have the business but to own the land,” Kelli said. “Because of that, through all the ups and downs of all the things we’ve had to go through, we’re still able to be in that space.”
Hank’s grandson Langston Lee hopes to achieve similar success one day. “I dream to own a house one day and to be able to do stuff like that. And he didn’t dream, he just did. It’s amazing to have a figure like that.”
Hank’s Mini Market is temporarily closed, with plans to reopen in 2026. Kelli anticipates a memorial for Hank will coincide with the reopening, and that the current Nipsey Hussle window wrap will be replaced with a tribute to her father.
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