By Leslie Maribel Bravo ’28

The Civil Rights activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson, passed away this morning at the age of 84. Rev. Jackson led the Civil Rights Movement after the assassination of fellow civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although Rev. Jackson was an aid to Dr. MLK Jr., he garnered respect and public attention in his own right during the movement. 

Jackson started as an organizer with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and participated in marches and sit-ins. He participated in the 1965 Alabama marches from Selma to Montgomery, and was soon after given a role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was made head of the Chicago branch in 1966 and promoted again to national director the following year. In this role he led Operation Breadbasket, an organization that served to improve economic conditions of Black communities through initiatives such as promoting the employment of African Americans in white-owned businesses and promoting the purchase of services and goods from Black-owned businesses. 

Shortly after Dr. King’s death, Jackson would go on to work on the SCLC’s Poor People’s Crusade in Washington, DC. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), where he continued with a similar goal to Operation Breadbasket, but instead pressured politicians into working to improve economic conditions for Black Americans and the poor. In 1984, he founded the Rainbow Coalition, which later merged with PUSH and reorientated to a more general focus on social justice, political activism, and civil rights. That same year, Jackson resigned from being president of PUSH to run for president as a Democrat. However, Jackson was not nominated at the National Democratic Convention in 1984, nor in 1988. After his two presidential runs, Jackson chose not to run again, and spent his time advocating for education and healthcare reform, as well as bringing attention to mass incarceration and the growth of the prison-industrial complex. 

During the presidency of Bill Clinton, Jackson was a loud critic of the president and his administration, gathering support for his impeachment by leading a prayer vigil outside the U.S. Capitol. In 2002, he proclaimed there was “a new America” in which the nation was abandoning Jeffersonian democracy in favor of a King democracy, which he modeled after the late civil rights leader. In 2007, he endorsed the then-Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic Party presidential primaries. He also endorsed Obama’s health care reform proposal in 2009, the same year he was honored by the Congressional Black Caucus on the 25th anniversary of his 1984 presidential campaign. 

In the 2010s, Jackson focused on urban reform, urging President Obama to take action by participating in the “Jobs, Justice and Peace” march in Detroit. He also participated in the Women’s March on Washington in 2017 after the inauguration of Donald Trump. He often condemned Trump’s presidency calling it a threat to fifty years of civil rights. 

In the 2020s, he was highly involved in protests during the Black Lives Matter movement, urging local police departments to take accountability for their officers and urging protesters to continue until there was action taken, but also to respect social distancing guidelines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In 2023, Jackson stepped down as leader of the joint Rainbow PUSH Coalition. The next year, he once again advocated for and supported social movement, but this time for the pro-Palestinian protests taking place on college campuses, condemning Israel for their massacre of Palestinian citizens. 

Reverend Jesse Jackson spent his life saliently dedicated to values of equality, justice, and peace. His actions emphasize the importance of fighting for what one believes is right, and remind us that, “At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.”

Contributor: Evan Kim ’29