By Ashleigh Fields
Special to the AFRO
World leaders, dignitaries and activists were among those who gathered March 6 to celebrate the life of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr., who served as a minister and activist-leader to the masses and died Feb. 17 at the age of 84.
Thousands convened in Chicago’s House of Hope to reflect on a life well lived. Among them were three former presidents: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Each of them eulogized the global civil rights advocate with frequent references to his popular slogans “I am somebody” and “Keep hope alive,” juxtaposing Jackson’s staple message of peace with the current administration.
“Each day we wake up to some new assault to our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law. An offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible,” President Obama told the crowded room of mourners.
“Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other, and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others. And that some don’t even count at all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.”
The first Black president elected to lead the United States reflected on Jackson’s campaigns for presidency, saying they were sources of inspiration to “an outsider” like him and many others.
He further reflected on the culmination of Jackson’s career as a “messenger” for hope and a mouthpiece for God who encouraged those around him to weather the storms in life until peace comes to pass.
“This man, Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path, his voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change,” Obama said. “How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call. What a great debt we owe to him. May God bless, Rev. Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace.”
When Clinton spoke, he referenced Jackson as someone with whom he had “more in common than we thought.”
“We were two guys born to single mothers, living in the South …,” the former president said, adding that Jackson became a friend, who was there “when I needed him.”
Jackson, who was a protege of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and carried on its cause after the revered leader’s assassination, helped inspire new generations of freedom fighters and social justice warriors.
“He was a leading icon of the Civil Rights Movement and a personal friend who helped shape the course of my life and the lives of so many committed to justice and the ideals of America,” said civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump. He added, “He took on corporate America, fought tirelessly to protect voting rights, negotiated the release of hostages across the globe, and remained on the front lines of protest well into his later years, even in the face of serious illness. He was an unstoppable and formidable force, proving that no opponent or battle was too big.”
Congressman Kweisi Mfume, a Democrat from Baltimore and former NAACP president, also mourned his fallen comrade while hailing his legacy.
“My friend, big brother, and leader of many struggles, battles, and victories has exited life’s stage but never our hearts,” Mfume said in a statement. “Jesse’s passion for justice, fair play, and the dignity of all people mattered greatly to him. He gave so much and asked for so little. His fearlessness, compassion, and meaningful life will forever be embodied in the history and eloquence of his example. Simply put for many of us, he was, and will always be, remembered as … the man, the message, and the movement.”
Among the numerous highlights of Jackson’s history was his founding of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, (a nonprofit that advocates for social justice, civil rights, and economic/educational equality globally. It was among the many ways he left his imprint on the world, the nation and local spaces like the District of Columbia, where he served its people faithfully as a politician, prayer leader and provocateur.
His connection to the District was based on investments in the city’s next leaders, seeds planted that later bloomed into bushels of hope.
As the first Black man to make a serious run for the highest office in the land, vying for the Democratic nomination to the presidency in both 1984 and 1988, Jackson pushed minorities to see themselves as viable and worthy players in a legislative sphere that had discounted them for generations.
Although the reverend did not obtain the party nomination, he did join Congress, representing the District in 1990 in the role of shadow senator. Jackson’s tenure coincided with the year that Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) won the position of delegate. Neither held voting power, but they captivated their colleagues with extensive knowledge of policy and a platform for D.C. statehood.
Holmes Norton said Jackson understood the denial of representation to D.C. residents was a “civil rights issue at the heart of America’s unfinished democratic promise.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expounded on Jackson’s contribution to the issue, saying in a statement, “For many in our country, he was the first person they heard make the case for DC statehood. The first person they heard say: It’s the right thing to do.”
She added, “He preached the stories and lessons of the giants whose shoulders we stand upon, and in time, became a giant himself. I am blessed to have known and learned from Rev. Jackson.”
At the time Jackson served as the District’s shadow senator, the nation’s capital was majority Black (65.8 percent) and had been that way since the 1950s. Jackson embedded himself in communities locally and at the forefront of national politics, mentoring a generation of leaders throughout the course of his career.
“I witnessed firsthand his extraordinary versatility as a speaker and a leader. He moved seamlessly from a union hall to a university auditorium, from a schoolhouse to God’s house, rallying people from every walk of life to the cause of justice. He did not just speak to audiences. He built movements,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) told the AFRO.
“Rev. Jackson was a groundbreaking leader who expanded the boundaries of our democracy and opened doors that had long been closed. His presidential campaigns, his work with labor, and his lifelong commitment to the poor and the marginalized helped reshape American politics and inspired a generation of leaders, myself included. He blazed a trail that so many of us now walk,” he added.
While young, Rev. Jackson could frequently be found in Southeast D.C.’s Potomac Gardens neighborhood, once photographed playing basketball with Mayor Marion Barry.
In later years, the late minister was also documented walking across Howard University to encourage protestors who blockaded the student center to protest for better campus housing.
“The Rev. showed up to make sure that we knew to stand strong, unwavering and proud. He told us to keep on. He told us we deserved first-class education, first-class living, first-class citizenship,” Channing Hill, NAACP National Youth Works Committee Youth Board Member and former campus protester said in a statement.
“The Rev. told us we deserved the same quality, standard, and accessibility to our education as the kids at Georgetown … . The. Rev told us we deserved the White House,” Hill added.
Indeed, he cheered for former President Barack Obama when he was elected to the White House, and later encouraged former Vice President Kamala Harris as a crowd chanted her name in Chicago after she secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
D.C. Rep. Oye Owolewa (D) said Jackson was indeed the inspiration for his start in local politics.
“Rev. Jesse Jackson is a personal inspiration of mine. As a child of African immigrant parents, I know I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Jesse Jackson. His work to integrate libraries in South Carolina in the 1960s allowed for my parents to go to integrated university in the United States in the 1970s,” Owolewa told the AFRO.
“His career as D.C.’s first U.S. senator created the opportunity for me to follow in his footsteps as D.C.’s U.S. representative decades later. … I owe him everything. May his memory continue to inspire others to get involved and serve with a higher purpose.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, fellow civil rights leader and founder of the National Action Network, called on those in attendance to ensure Jackson’s legacy lives on.
“We are allowing ourselves to be lowered and our children to feel inferior because you don’t have an ‘I am somebody’ person,” Sharpton said.
“So what I’m urging you to do is leave here with some Jackson fire in you. Not just a program book, but to say, ‘I see the things the way they are, but I’m going to turn and change them.’”
