Tuesday 17.2.26. Jesse Jackson died this morning.
His long journey to become the icon who would carry the message of Martin Luther King into the mainstream of American political life, started on the evening of the 4th of April 1968. Rev Martin Luther King Jnr and his group were in the city of Memphis to support garbage workers, predominantly African American, who were on strike for better safety and improved pay.
A day earlier, they were invited to a public meeting at a Church in town. MLK, nursing a headache and out of sorts, did not wish to go. When the others got to the venue, they found the crowd only had eyes for one man, MLK. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy picked the phone and called the leader.
‘Martin, come to the Church and let them see you.’
MLK, his headache thrust aside, went on to deliver one of the most powerful speeches in human history.
He referred to ‘threats out there’. He went on:
‘…But it really doesn’t matter to me now, because I have been to the mountaintop…I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land…I may not get there with you. But I want you to know… that we, as a people will get to the promised land…And I’m happy tonight…I’m not fearing any man…’
He had just come from a plane which had to be emptied because of the threat of a terrorist attack.
On the 4th of April, King was standing on the balcony of Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, his favourite digs in town. The group had planned to go out to dinner. It was 6pm. Jesse Jackson, twenty-six years old, the baby among the group, the one who favoured afro haircuts and t-shirts where King and the others wore proper suits, was in the parking lot, heading up the stairs.
And then they all heard the shot.
MLK was hurled down to the floor, with blood gushing from his jaw and neck.
Jackson bounded up the stairs.
King was lying in a pool of his own blood, already dead.
The iconic takeaway image from the scene is Jackson standing with others, pointing in the direction where the shot came from.
Jesse Jackson died this morning.
He was 84. In the last several months the dashing young man of yore has been crippled by Parkinson’s disease, and forced to travel in a wheelchair. But his spirit has been undaunted. When he was asked by younger people why he did not simply retire, since his work was done, his answer was always the same. MLK and the others died in their late thirties. They did not live to retire. There was no retirement plan in the struggle.
He was born Jesse Louis Burns in South Carolina. When he was one year old, his mother married a man named Jackson. Jesse took his stepfather’s surname but maintained a close relationship with his birth father.
With a natural penchant for protest and organising, he joined MLK and participated in the Selma to Montgomery march. King soon gave him a role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), charged with heading Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm, first in Chicago, then nationally. He pressured white-owned businesses to employ blacks and purchase goods and services from black-owned businesses, under the threat of black consumer boycott.
After the assassination of MLK, Jackson began to work to form a coalition with whites and to shift the focus of agitation from a racial one to an economic and class struggle.
In 1971, he launched Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity – later changed to People United to Serve Humanity) with a focus on improving economic opportunities for poor people, black and white.
Although black people and the Civil Rights movement gravitated towards the Democratic Party, Jackson sought to build a bridge across the political divide, displaying early the insight that some people have only recently come to – that there can be black Conservatives, and that not all black people are automatically Liberals.
In 1984, he organised the ‘Rainbow Coalition’ and contested for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination. His fame and reach had grown massively as a political organiser with appeal, not just among African Americans, but also among all people.
His speech before the Democratic National Convention defined the achievements of Civil Rights and a new USA.
‘…America is not like…one piece of unbroken cloth, same colour, same texture…more like a quilt: many patches…many colours…’
He lost the election. But his participation galvanised increased voter registration among African Americans.
Jackson continued his street activism, leading ‘Keep Hope Alive’ rallies.
In 1988, he ran again for the Presidency, campaigning for universal Health Care and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, among other issues. He lost.
While he continued agitating for good causes, he remained active in mainstream politics.
When Barack Obama finally won the election for the Presidency of America, forty years after MLK was shot in Memphis, Jackson wept.
Jackson was an international figure, supporting Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, and stepping in wherever anyone was facing injustice, whether in America or abroad. He opposed Apartheid and was friends with Nelson Mandela. He negotiated for the release of American hostages held in foreign countries. He became one of the most visible, and most admired, liberal advocates in the world.
With Donald Trump he had a complicated relationship. Trump, for some time, even provided free accommodation for Rainbow/PUSH in Trump Towers.
In 2023, Jackson retired as leader of Rainbow/PUSH, citing age and declining health.
Jesse Jackson died this morning, at a time when Donald Trump is constructing a gaudy monstrosity in the Rose Garden in the White House, and Roe versus Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court.
The young are reminded that the battle for a better world is not a straight dash forward, but often two steps forward and one step back.
May the soul of Rev Jesse Jackson rest in peace
