Remembering The Rev. Jesse Jackson, an American original

In 1988, the Reverend Jesse Jackson ended his outsider campaign for president with a stirring speech for the history books:  “We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!”

In a decade when America was turning against big government, Jackson ran on a message of economic support and faith-based compassion for the working class and poor of all backgrounds. He called it his “Rainbow Coalition.”

Although Jackson fell short of the Democratic nomination that year, and in an earlier race in 1984, his two campaigns produced a surge of new voter registration, and received more than 10 million primary votes.

Those then-record numbers for a Black candidate paved the way for the election 20 years later of Barack Obama, whose victory speech Jackson watched in tears.

And since then, Jackson’s grassroots playbook has been adapted by political insurgents from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump.

Born in 1941 to an unwed teenage mother in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson turned heads early with his fierce drive and athletic ability. 

Diving into civil rights work, he became one of the youngest aides to Martin Luther King Jr., and he was by King’s side in Memphis the week he was assassinated.

From his base in Chicago, Jackson extended King’s movement to the business world, organizing consumer boycotts and pushing for more Blacks on corporate boards. 

He became a player on the world stage, too, with missions to free Americans taken prisoner in foreign war zones.

But Jackson will also be remembered for private failings that left him repeatedly seeking public forgiveness. He was suspected of exaggerating a story about cradling Dr. King’s head in his hands. He was caught using a crude slur for Jews, and carrying on an extramarital affair that produced an out-of-wedlock child. 

By the time Jackson was honored at the 2024 Democratic Convention, his once-thundering voice was silenced by an incurable neurological disorder.

But in the age of social media, reminders live on of what made Jesse Jackson such an American original – like the time he went on “Sesame Street” to teach the kids his favorite poem, “I am Somebody”:

I am Somebody!
I am Somebody!
I may be poor,
But I am Somebody.
I may be young,
But I am Somebody.
I may be on welfare,
But I am Somebody.
I may be small,
But I am Somebody.
I may have made mistakes,
But I am Somebody.
My clothes are different,
My face is different,
My hair is different,
But I am Somebody.
I am Black,
Brown,
White.
I speak a different language
But I must be respected,
Protected,
Never rejected.
I am God’s child!
I am Somebody!

     
Story produced by Liza Monasebian. Editor: Emanuele Secci.