A public memorial service will be held Friday for Joseph N. Jackson, a pioneering Black inventor who created a programmable television remote control.
Jackson, an army veteran and former Hawthorne city commissioner, died in August, according to the family. The public memorial will be held at 2 p.m. at Grace Memorial Chapel, located at 3443 W. Manchester Blvd., followed by interment at Inglewood Park Cemetery.
American televangelist and philanthropist James Cannon, the father of entertainer Nick Cannon, will deliver the eulogy.
In the 1970s, Jackson’s groundbreaking work led to the foundation of parental content controls now standard in every American home. Years before the U.S. government mandated what is known as the “V-Chip,” Jackson invented and patented the “Programmable Television Receiver Controller” in 1978.
His device — marketed as the TeleCommander — was the first to offer programmable, time-based channel blocking. It gave households more control over what content was suitable for their children and families.
“Every time a parent uses a remote to block inappropriate content, they are using technology pioneered by Joseph Jackson,” Don Jackson, nephew and president of FemChoice Technology LLC, said in a statement. “He was a quiet genius who believed technology should serve and protect families. His work on the TeleCommander proved it was possible.”
Jackson will be interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, the resting place of American Icons such as Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles. The cemetery will feature his gravesite in its “Historic Figures and Innovators Tour,” ensuring his legacy as a key figure in technology and Black innovation history is known.
Jackson’s later work focused on health technology, leading to the creation of Fem-Choice MD, a biorhythmic fertility prediction device.