Alan Wooten
The Center Square

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, instrumental in civil rights advocacy after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King, has died at his Chicago home.

He was 84.

His death Tuesday morning was confirmed by his daughter Santita Jackson. Praise and acclaim poured in, noting his courage and bravery in a time of unrest in the South.

“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” said a statement from his family.

Born in South Carolina and educated at North Carolina A&T just after four freshmen protested segregation at the “whites only” lunch counter of Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, Jackson was renowned beyond the United States. His relationships extended from everyday people he met on his crusades to powerful business leaders and those chosen to lead foreign nations.

The oratorical skills of the Baptist minister coupled with the continued passion and compassion of King energized millions. It led to runs for president as a Democrat in 1984 and 1988; he was third behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart in the primary for the former, and second to Michael Dukakis for the latter.

Rahm Emanuel, former may of Chicago, said Jackson “challenged all of us and he made us better.” U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Jackson a “voice for the voiceless.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Jackson’s dedication was relentless.

Others said the effort he made to become the first Black president in the 1980s was pivotal for Barack Obama in 2008. His first bid was thwarted in part when it became known Jackson used an antisemitic slur about Jews in New York.

Operation PUSH, based in Chicago, and the National Rainbow Coalition were two organizations he founded. Former President Bill Clinton tapped him as a special envoy to Africa, and Jackson is credited with helping facilitate release of Americans in Syria, Cuba, Iraq and Serbia.

Rev. Al Sharpton said Jackson “was a movement unto himself.”

Jackson’s signature words from a poem included, “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.”

Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017. He had 24-hour care in his final months.

Greenville, S.C., is where Jackson was born on Oct. 8, 1941. His exploits as a quarterback at Sterling High took him on scholarship to the University of Illinois. Told a Black couldn’t play the position, he transferred to North Carolina A&T and started at quarterback.

His academics included honors in sociology, economics and president of the student body. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968. He studied at Chicago Theological Seminary.

Jackson marched with King from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, the 54-mile trip to the Alabama capitol inclusive of the bloody conflict with state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The incident is given significant credit for creating unity nationwide in the push to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King, Jackson said, died in his arms on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tenn.

Jackson’s five children with his wife, Jacqueline, included Jesse Jackson Jr., a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to his wife, Jesse Jr. and Santita, he is survived by sons Jonathan, Yusef and Jacqueline Jr.

A sixth child, Ashley Jackson, is the daughter born in 1999 to he and Karen Stanford. Stanford had worked in his civil rights groups.