Good morning. It’s Ash Wednesday, and Ramadan has begun. Rescuers pulled six skiers from the site of an avalanche near Lake Tahoe, Calif. last night. Nine remain missing. There’s more news below. But I want to start today with the life and legacy of an American whose activism — and ambition — helped shape our politics and our culture.
A moral force“My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson intoned in 1984 during his address at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. “They are restless and seek relief.” I watched the speech with my mom on the modest television she reserved only for news programming. (There was no “Dynasty” for me growing up.) It was a tense moment for the party, fractured after a difficult primary season in which he had called Jews “Hymie” and New York City, my home, “Hymietown.” In his address, Jackson tried to unify the factions. It was riveting to watch but didn’t really succeed. Yet outside of the grainy old footage of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we viewed in history classes at school, I had never seen anything like it: moral clarity delivered from a great height, albeit one accompanied by sharpened political knives for the president, Ronald Reagan. Jackson, who died yesterday at 84, held a complicated place in American culture. He was an electrifying orator who ran for president twice, registered millions of new Black voters and established a multiracial Democratic coalition, Peter Applebome writes in his obituary for The Times. Jackson’s ambition, and his eloquence, made him a moral and political force in the nation. He was also flawed, Peter writes: His transcendent rhetoric was inseparable from an imperfect human being whose ego, instinct for self-promotion and personal failings were a source of unending irritation to many friends and admirers and targets for derision by many critics. Mr. Jackson, the writer and social commentator Stanley Crouch once said, “will be forever doomed by his determination to mythologize his life.” The rainbow coalitionJackson rose from abject poverty in South Carolina to become the country’s most influential Black figure in the years between the death of Dr. King and the election of Barack Obama. He adapted the civil rights message for a post-civil-rights era as he advocated Black equality. In his 1984 address, Jackson said the Democratic Party was not perfect. “Yet we are called to a perfect mission,” Jackson continued. “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.” That perfect mission inspired generations of Black Democrats, Reid Epstein reported yesterday, while also demonstrating for the first time that white Americans would vote for a Black presidential candidate. His bids — the first of which ended with that speech I saw on TV — were unsuccessful.
But he blazed a new trail for Black politicians. In 1989, Douglas Wilder was elected the first Black governor of Virginia, as David Dinkins became New York City’s first Black mayor and Norman Rice became the first Black mayor of Seattle. Also that year, Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the first Black person chosen to lead a major political party. And in 1992, with Jackson’s support, Carol Moseley Braun became the first Black woman elected to the Senate. “Without Reverend Jackson, there never would have been Barack Obama,” Donna Brazile, who was a top organizer of Southern states in Jackson’s 1984 campaign, told Reid. That explains why flags in South Carolina flew at half-staff yesterday, and tributes poured in. They came from President Trump, from former Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton, from faith leaders, other political figures and citizen mourners on the streets of Chicago, where Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition has its headquarters on the city’s South Side. That organization, in its advocacy for minority representation in corporate settings, in its push for voter registration, in its efforts to combat poverty and discrimination, will also be a part of Jackson’s legacy. “It’s so sad,” one Chicagoan said. “Reverend Jackson has done so much for the community.” A life in picturesOne of the clearest ways to understand Jackson’s place in American history is to scroll through the photographs that captured his path. One shows him singing “We Shall Overcome” with Mahalia Jackson and Dr. King in 1966. Another is of him addressing a protest crowd in Indiana three years later. Here he is standing next to Reagan after a meeting in 1980. There, running for president in 1984 and again four years later, fire in his eyes. (Watch this moment, which went viral yesterday, when he appeared on an early “Sesame Street” episode.)
Speaking of, one of my favorites, from the Times photographer Damon Winter: Jackson red-eyed and pensive, proud and maybe regretful, on the verge of tears as he watched the news of Obama’s projected presidential victory at a rally in Chicago in 2008. It recalled for me something Clayborne Carson, a history professor, told Peter for Jackson’s obituary. “Jesse Jackson played as central a role in his era as King did in his era,” Carson said. “But it was not the kind of heroic struggle as in the 1960s. You’re not going to get a Nobel Prize for what Jesse Jackson did, but it took a lot of talent, initiative, energy, imagination and charisma, and he had those in full supply.” Now, let’s see what else is happening in the world.
The Justice Department’s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein has revealed his ties to powerful people across Wall Street, Hollywood, academia and government. As more evidence emerges, some of those people are now losing jobs and facing investigations. Here is a chart with a few examples. See more of them here.
Figure skating: Alysa Liu of Team U.S.A. turned in a nearly flawless performance in the women’s short program, putting herself in contention for gold. Downhill skiing: Lindsey Vonn, the Alpine skiing star, is back in the U.S. after undergoing four surgeries on her fractured left leg in Italy. Vonn said she had been immobile since crashing in competition on Feb. 8. Freeski: Tormod Frostad of Norway landed a near-perfect final jump to win gold in the men’s freeski big air event. Speedskating: Italy upset the U.S. for the gold medal in the men’s team pursuit. The Americans, the reigning world champions and world-record holders, took silver.
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If Democrats want to break through in Texas, primary voters should pick candidates and ideas that resonate locally, Michelle Cottle writes. Here is a column by Jamelle Bouie on Marco Rubio’s interpretation of Western civilization. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more.
Roaring ahead: In a San Francisco garage, a team creates spectacular lions that lead Lunar New Year festivities. Robot influencers: As more people use A.I. to decide what to buy, companies are tailoring their digital marketing to chatbots. Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about Anderson Cooper’s decision to leave “60 Minutes.” |
