For Jesse
Tributes for Jesse Jackson have been flowing in from around the globe, in reverence for his life and good works. As Juan Gonzalez said, “Jesse was always there when people were fighting for some form of social justice. He could always be counted on to show up and express public support. And of all the U.S. leaders of the past half-century, I believe none had a more international view and a commitment to worldwide social justice as Jesse Jackson did. So, those of us who knew him will all be better for having known him, and it’s a tremendous loss that he’s gone.”
I first heard Jackson speak on the Washington Mall in the mud of the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. In the aftermath of the murder of Dr. King, his voice was a voice of hope and resolve. But it was not until his campaign for president in 1984 that I came to appreciate his vision.
As part of the National Organization for an American Revolution, we decided to support his campaign. We wrote a leaflet calling on people to become engaged in the political life of their communities, saying, “We can’t leave it all to Jesse.”
Grace Boggs and I went to hand out the leaflets at Cobo Hall when Jesse came to speak. Next to us was an older African American couple. As Jesse walked out on stage, the elder man began to rock back and forth, repeating softly, “Dear Lord, dear Lord, I never thought I’d see this day, I never thought I’d see this day,” tears streaming quietly down his face.
He showed me the power of Jackson’s bold vision.
This vision of the rainbow coalition was in stark contrast to the one unfolding under Ronald Regan. Regan had been elected in 1980 in an openly white supremacist bid for power. Regan had officially opened his campaign at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, just a few miles from where three civil rights workers had been murdered. The killings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney had shocked the country in 1964. Regan made no mention of them in his overt plea to “George Wallace voters.”
Jackson, on the other hand, centered on improving the lives of the people who were “the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised.” He stood with the “locked out and the locked up.” This was not a strategic decision but “the call of conscience, redemption, expansion, healing, and unity.”
His vision of leadership was one of courage and grace. He said, “No generation can choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but through leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, peace, and justice.”
Acknowledging his own limitations, he said, “I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient: God is not finished with me yet.”
He described leaders as people “tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.”
Today, as the USA brings violence across the globe, Jackson’s understanding of the moral force that is possible when people turn toward each other rather than against one another is much needed. In many ways, we are seeing it unfolding as people protect each other from the forces of ICE.
He envisioned a world where we understood, “We are not a perfect people. Yet we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission: to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.”
He invited young people to use their creativity and imagination to “Bury the weapons and don't burn the people. Dream -- dream of a new value system. Teachers who teach for life and not just for a living, teach because they can't help it. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of doctors more concerned about public health than personal wealth. Dream of preachers and priests who will prophesy and not just profiteer.”
Jesse Jackson’s vision calls us to keep moving forward to “come to economic common ground and moral higher ground,” as “we come from disgrace to amazing grace.” He left us much wisdom and strength for this journey.