Jack Fitzgerald Prophet

Jackie Bell Raines was born on May 4, 1948, in Philadelphia, a year after Jackie Robinson crossed over into Major League Baseball from the Negro League. His young mother, Ida Bell Raines, was inspired to name her first born after the “Great Black Hope.” Her parents, Linwood and Florence (Bell) Raines, brought him home to Petersburg, Virginia, where they raised him alongside their younger 8 (of 12) children.

Jackie was taught to be a leader and the head of his family. He learned that quiet strength holds up better than noise. That dignity isn't something you claim— you practice it daily. And, that family exists beyond the people you share blood with. Oftentimes, it's the friends who show up with open ears and mouths that speak the right words, that become family, too.

Life has its way of stripping away a child’s innocence. In 1955, Jackie’s 3-year-old sister, Susie Ann, passed away. Jackie turned 7 years old five days later. Learning to adjust to such loss was difficult on him and his sister, Baraba. Together, they had to navigate a loud grief that only got louder. Their grandmother Florence died soon after. The back-to-back losses changed the trajectory of their lives. It was 1956 when Jackie and Barbara moved to Long Island to live with their mother who worked as a live-in domestic. Their baby sister, Laverne, lived with her godparents in Glen Cove and would join them thereafter. It was a new beginning etched with grief and strangers but also sustained by a group of honorable men and church women who mentored and nurtured them.

Jackie’s New York family looked different. It was curated, not inherited—built from Ida’s Shiloh Baptist Church family and friends, particularly, Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Pope, and the Smith and Poulson families. Together, they became the village that helped raise him. Mentors' worth mentioning include his father, Herbert Hoover Prophet, Sr., Mr. Ellsworth Haskins and Mr. Winfield.

Jackie attended school in the Mineola Union-Free School District before moving to Rockville Centre. In 1957, his mother married Herbert Hoover Prophet, Sr., and their family grew, giving birth to his siblings: Herbert Jr., Deborah, Herman and Phyllis. Herbert Sr. was a surrogate father whose guidance ushered him into manhood. Acknowledging this, Jackie Bell Raines reintroduced himself with a chosen name: Jack Fitzgerald Prophet—a new name for a new life, chosen with intention and purpose.

The Civil Rights Movement was in full effect when the United States had initiated Urban Renewal projects that bulldozed Black neighborhoods under the guise of beautification. Witnessing this in his Rockville Centre, a teenaged Jack was called to join the revolution. Among the youth he professed out loud: “I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD!” He graduated from South Side High School to begin his lifelong crusade.

Jack attended Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and became a Nupe, or a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. These men of crimson and cream strengthened and empowered the man that Linwood, Benjamin, Herbert and Elsworth had raised. Mentored in community service and Black excellence, the cornerstone of the man had been laid.

Jack attended Long Island University C.W. Post and earned his master’s degree in Public Administration. He excelled in his classes and completed his course work but was unable to pay his tuition. This would later become a matter that compromised his career.

It was 1974, when Jack met the love of his life, Vanessa Althea Scott. After months of dating, they were inseparable. They were married on August 12, 1978, and spent the next (nearly) 48 years together. In the midst of his blossoming political career, he and Vanessa grew their family, with the birth of their first child and only son, Ian Fitzgerald (b.1979). His daughters Sonja Alexandria (b.1983), Marlena Elise (b.1985) and Shayna Montez (b. 1990) completed their family.

Mr. James Davis, the Regional Director for the NAACP of Long Island, catapulted his career. Jack credited him for molding him into the force he would later become. He taught him about when and how to fight in the political arena as a Black man and trained him in the art of socializing with high profile individuals. “Don’t let them see you anxious. Let them come to you!” And they did. He and Jimmy Davis formed a powerhouse team that shook-up Nassau and Suffolk County political establishments and targeted systemic discrimination. Getting fired by the establishment politicians evidently freed him up to fight them from the outside. As Assistant Regional Director of the NAACP of Long Island, he gained the platform to actively monitor local governments, protect Black voters, and demand administrative and management roles for Minority workers across Long Island. Even decades later, Jack continued to speak at New York State Senate hearings, drawing directly on the lessons and Civil Rights battles he and Jimmy Davis fought during those intense years.

From 1989 until he became ill in 2020, Jack worked as a Political & Government Relations Consultant particularly contracted to organize political campaigns that specifically focused on the African-American and/or Minority communities' constituents. He set campaign goals, obtained funding and identified accessible and appropriate uses of funding. Jack coordinated the following campaigns:

Ben Zwirn, Supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead (1989)

Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic Party/ We The People Party, Democratic Party Presidential Primary, Candidate for President of the United States of America (1992)

Tom Suozzi, Democratic Party, Candidate and Elected Nassau County Executive

Gov. Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, Nigeria, advised on campaign management, voter identification and establishing political agencies.

He worked behind the scenes like the Wizard of Oz, making magic without recognition. Among his titles are the following accomplishments:

President, NAACP - Rockville Centre/Lakeview Branch: effectively broke a decade-long blockade by implementing the policy that granted Lakeview children yellow school buses to safely transport to school.

Nassau County Crime Victims Advocate: After years of fighting systemic, broad scale political battles for entire neighborhoods, this role empowered him to protect vulnerable community members on a deeply personal one-on-one level. He assisted families in drafting victim impact statements for judges and parole boards, giving a clear, powerful voice to grieving families who felt completely ignored by the state.

First and Only Black Aide to the Supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead: implemented a program with the Long Island Railroad by creating a direct structural pipeline that forced the railroad to actively recruit, hire and promote minority applicants and dismantling the LIRR hiring blockade. For decades, public transit and railroad jobs on Long Island were notoriously tight-knit, heavily unionized positions that historically relied on word-of-mouth hiring, effectively locking Black and Hispanic workers out of high-paying career tracks. Jack transformed lives, secured jobs and built generational wealth for countless families across Nassau County and beyond. This completely changed the course of Black and Hispanic families on Long Island.

Founder & Deputy Director of the Office of Minority Affairs & Issues

In 2015, Jack managed to convince a Wall Street Investment Fund, Renaissance Downtowns, to invest in the redevelopment of the downtown Village of Hempstead. This $1.5+ Billion project was Long Island’s largest ever approved project with construction slated to commence in 2016. It would have served as a model for the holistic and comprehensive redevelopment of suburban downtowns throughout the entire nation. However, stakeholders eventually rejected the project that would have beautified downtown Hempstead, created jobs and stimulated the local economy.

In March of 2020, Jack was diagnosed with a debilitating neurological disorder. His health declined rapidly causing his family to seek long-term care. After 6 years of fighting the disease, Jack passed away on July 6, 2026, at the Good Samaritan Hospice at Mercy Medical Center.

Preceding him in death, his baby sister, Susie Ann Raines; his grandparents, Florence Bell and Linwood Raines; his parents, Ida Bell Raines and Herbert Hoover Prophet; his niece, Tamara Scott; and his brother-friends: Dr. Michael G. Davidson and Peter Thompson.

He leaves to celebrate his life: his wife, Vanessa; his aunt, Dorothy McCray; his siblings: Barbara Denson (JC), Herbert Prophet Jr. (Ida), Deborah Prophet, Herman Prophet and Phyllis Prophet; his son, Ian; his daughters, Sonja, Marlena Jaklitsch (Trent), and Shayna Roopchand (Gary); his grandsons, Michael, Fitz and Kashmir; his granddaughter, Cassidy; his great-granddaughter, Frankie; his nieces and nephews: Erika, Tanya, Asia, La’Chele, Sarlene, Donna, Theresa, Kimberly, Linda, Jahn, Jade, Regan, Aja, Latasha, Justine, Shalena, Christine, Kristin, Garmel, Michael, Shamar, Casey, Darius, Herbert, Cordell, Morris, Justin, Philip, Eric, Michael, Kenny, Keenan, Trevor, Kevin, Ryan; Cody and Cameron; his godson, Kenneth Whyte Jr.; his best friend and brother, Kenneth Whyte (Carol); and a host of cousins, friends and associates.

Please find the link to join the livestream of the Funeral Mass for Jack Fitzgerald Prophet on Monday July 13, 2026, at 9:45am here: https://boxcast.tv/view/funeral-mass---jack-fitzgerald-prophet-cz6jang3w0v0glri7sa1