I have a wall of photographs in my home — an eclectic mix of portraits of icons and ordinary people. Every day I pass by a photo of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. He’s near a heavily draped window with a shaft of light illuminating his face. He’s standing alone, seemingly in a meditative state.
It was a quiet moment captured on the 1984 presidential campaign trail when he ran for the Democratic nomination. The photograph was taken by one of the dozens of Black photographers and journalists who covered the campaign for president of the United States.
As news of Jackson’s passing was announced, Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, crystallized the impact of his campaign, saying Jackson made it possible for Barack Obama to win.
Jackson took the lessons he learned as one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lieutenants, and became a leader in his own right for the modern Civil Rights Movement. He used his extraordinary gifts as an orator to both build coalitions across race and class, and build up Black communities economically and spiritually.
I grew up listening to the weekly radio program of the Chicago-based meetings of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. At my parents’ house it was appointment listening. I can still hear the crowds shouting his signature mantras: “I am somebody” and “Keep hope alive.”
I didn’t realize then that the Rev. Jackson was blazing trails that opened up doors for Black journalists like me, and Black Americans in general.
So, it feels right that he died during Black History Month, because he was Black history.
It feels right that one of the last lions of the Civil Rights Movement — who was on the balcony in Memphis when King was assassinated — took his last breath during the time when Black history is under threat of erasure.
It feels right that Jackson — who weathered scandals and public failures — never stopped working for social justice. He was a civil rights leader, a hostage negotiator, a preacher and presidential hopeful. He admitted, “I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds.… God isn’t finished with me yet.”
During my career, I’ve had many opportunities to be in rooms around or near the Rev. Jackson. He never failed to stay on message: “America can do better” and “We the people can win.”
I interviewed him for the forum at Boston’s John. F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum some years ago. The subject was “Strategies and Tactics in the Struggle for Civil and Human Rights.” Even while discussing some of the most difficult struggles, the Rev. Jackson emphasized the need to have hope, telling the audience, “When it’s real dark, a little light goes a long way.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr.: civil rights leader and historic pathbreaker. His accomplishments are embedded in the consciousness of Black communities sending him off to join the ancestors with words that would be familiar to him from Matthew 25:21: “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” Well done.
