A wise man once said, “If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.”
On Feb. 17, the wise man by the name of Jesse Louis Jackson died at the age of 84 due to progressive supranuclear palsy, leaving behind a legacy of civil rights activism, an echo throughout politics, and an imprint on history.
Jackson was a man who battled beside Martin Luther King Jr. for civil rights, a front runner for the 1984 Democratic nomination through his activism, the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (People United to Save Humanity), and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
Born on Oct. 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina to Helen Burns, who was 18 at the time of his birth, Jackson grew up in a period where racial segregation was still enforced.
In his teenage years, he attended a public school for only Black students–Sterling High School. At Sterling, Jackson was an honor student, a football standout, class president, and received an athletic scholarship in 1959 to the University of Illinois.
After one year, Jackson transferred from South Carolina to North Carolina A&T College. Graduating in 1964, Jackson received a Rockefeller grant for the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Throughout Jackson’s life, he pursued a career in being an activist for civil rights, and eventually in 1984 and 1988, Jackson ran for president. Though he was not elected, his campaign and work pushed former President Barack Obama to run for president in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
Released on X, President Obama and Michelle Obama stated that Jackson “-laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”
AP United States Government teacher Jeff Isola ’98, commented that, “He [Jesse Jackson] was one of the longest surviving members of the civil rights movement.” Isola added, “He was there with MLK when he got assassinated, and was one of the younger ones in the movement, so he got to carry that along.”
Jackson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and forever will be remembered for his advocacy and work.
