The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the protégé of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and founder of Operation PUSH who ran inspiring but unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, died Tuesday at age 84.
He died at home, surrounded by family, the Associated Press reported, citing his daughter. "Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," the Jackson family said in a statement posted online.
A powerful orator whose trademark call-and-response phrases — such as "I Am Somebody!" and "Keep hope alive!" and "What time is it?! It's Nation time!" — Jackson boosted the self-esteem and political activism of his mostly Black audiences. He was not the preferred candidate of the Democratic political establishment — Black or white — but his focus on voter registration and grassroots outreach led to two electrifying underdog campaigns for president. He won more than 3 million votes in 1984 and nearly 7 million in 1988.
In the wake of his passing, Jackson's oft-repeated instruction to "keep hope alive" is even more important, as is his emphasis on unity. As historian Robert Greene II told me before Jackson died, Jackson's political organizing and civil rights apparatus provides an impressive blueprint: "If such a coalition can be formed once more and kept stable for a generation, it would be the best and most reliable bulwark against the kind of conservatism Donald Trump and the modern Republican Party represent." This is a preview of the latest column by Keisha N. Blain. Read the full column here. |
