When Douglas Foster, the former editor of Mother Jones, heard of the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson’s death earlier this month, he was transported right back to the summer of 1987 when the two met at Jackson’s presidential campaign headquarters on the South Side of Chicago.
In a new piece out today, Foster shares what it was like to ask Jackson questions, to see his world behind the scenes, and to encounter him decades later on election night in 2008, as President Barack Obama became the first Black chief executive.
“If you’d seen him thundering before massive crowds on television or in person during the ’60s and ’70s, as I had, you never forgot his booming baritone and rhythmic wordplay,” Foster writes, noting that at 6’4” Jackson towered over him. “That was the first impression—larger than life—no surprise. But the sound of his offstage voice was muted and even whispery, hard for my tape recorder to pick up. He was blunt about the business at hand. ‘What are we doing?’ he rasped.”
The piece takes us on plane rides with Jackson, lets us in on his frustrations, and eulogizes the social and political heavyweight. It’s an insightful read. I hope you’ll give it a look.
—Katie Herchenroeder
