Jesse Jackson: Prophet of America's Possibility

He lived the hope that Reconstruction is possible and showed us the power of "we the people"

Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson died this morning at his home in Chicago, Illinois. He was 84 years-old. I prayed this morning with his children who have taken shifts by his beside to care for him for weeks. His son told me that when their father died, their mother said, “A mighty lion has fallen.”

With Rev. Jesse Jackson in the US Capitol rotunda, 2018

This loss hits me hard and deep. I worked in Rev. Jackson’s youth work in North Carolina when he ran for president, and he has been supportive for over 40 years - a constant and reassuring presence throughout my public ministry.

I was Student Government President at North Carolina Central University when Jesse ran for President in 1984. As students, we saw in his campaign the issues that mattered and the energy that was needed to bring new voters into politics. It wasn’t about Democrat or Republican. We weren’t even thinking about that. We were thinking about how people could have enough to survive and thrive in this society.

With Rev. Jackson on the campus of NC Central University, 1984

Most of us had come from poor Eastern North Carolina. We knew what it was like for people not to have living wages and health insurance. And here this figure comes, rising to really start back up the ending of the Second Reconstruction and maybe even bring us toward the promise of a Third Reconstruction. Jesse showed us how moral leadership can rally a fusion coalition that isn’t possible when we do politics as usual. We’ve built Repairers of the Breach to train moral leaders to build rainbow coalitions in every place - and Jesse has been right there supporting us all the way.

We just finished a march across Eastern North Carolina to rally a coalition to overcome the gerrymander that’s trying to steal a Congressional seat. We are doing what Jesse showed us how to do back then. He said, like little David in the biblical story, we have gather up the smooth stones of unregistered and inactive voters to bring down Goliaths who abuse power. He was right then, and it’s still true today.

I’m grateful Abby Phillip was able to capture much of Jesse’s vision and contribution to politics in her recent book, A Dream Deferred. We talked with her about the book and Jackson’s legacy here on Our Moral Moment this past November.

I remember once, when I was volunteering for his Presidential campaign, Jesse made me so angry. We had been organizing and we missed some points in our presentation. He made two of us stay up all night researching the points. He said, “You don’t get second chances in this, and people are counting on you to have your stuff together.” This was after we had done five stops with hardly any money - five of us sleeping in one room, and all of volunteers. The first time Jesse ran for president in 1984, he didn’t hardly have any money for security or staff. We all volunteered, and yet when it was over we had registered millions of new voters.

Everywhere he went when he ran for President, Jesse would take more time registering voters than he would giving a speech. He registered new voters of every race, creed, and color. We didn’t have a precinct on our college campus, but after Reverend Jackson came through in 1984, we decided we had to fight for a precinct on that campus. We marched 2,000 students to the polls, fought for our own precinct, and got it.

Five years ago, when Repairers of the Breach worked with moral leaders in Texas to build a fusion coalition to challenge gerrymandering there, Jesse came and marched with us. I tried to tell him, “No, you don’t have to do this.” His disease was already advanced then. But at 80 years old, he was on that asphalt in the Texas summer heat. He met us in Arizona to petition Senator Sinema to break the filibuster to protect voting rights, and again in Washington, DC to challenge Senator Manchin on the same issue. To the very end, he showed up in every way he could. He had demanded it of me when I was young because he knew that the gospel demanded it of him.

With Rev. Jackson outside Sen Sinema’s office, Phoenix, AZ, 2021

Jesse’s mantra was “Keep hope alive,” but he knew hope was not just wishful thinking. Real hope isn’t passive. It comes from deep faith and moral commitment, when people can no longer accept the way things are and set out to change them. That’s when hope is born, nurtured, and grown. And that’s where Jesse chose to be his whole life long.

I remember one day when we were with Jesse on the campaign, he took us to this restaurant. And the lady there said, “It’s Reverend Jackson. Let me give you a free meal.”

He said, “No, no.” And he pointed to a guy outside. He said, “If you want to give a free meal, give it to him.”

That’s the kind of leader he was. From the way he called forth a rainbow coalition of people to challenge economic and social inequality to his historic presidential run to the way he dared to keep hope alive whenever the nation struggled with being who she says she is and yet ought to be, Jesse embodied the hope that we can still become the best of what we’ve claimed to be. He put the people first, and he knew that “we the people” have the most important power in the world - the power of love to transform this nation.

Now Jesse rests with the angels and ancestors. His name in Hebrew means a gift from God because God exists. Indeed, Jesse was a gift from God and a witness that God exists in the ways he cared for and lifted all people, the way he called forth a rainbow coalition of people to challenge economic and social inequality, the way he transformed politics thru a historic presidential run, the way he dared to keep hope alive whenever the nation struggled with being who she says she is and yet ought to be.

Now his eternal hope is realized as he takes his place among the ancestors in the presence of God. May we all take up his hope for the America that has never yet been but nevertheless must be.