On Tuesday, we lost a giant when Rev. Jesse Jackson died at the age of 84. In this week’s Le[e]gal Brief, attorney Lee Merritt pays tribute to the man who inspired several generations of Black youth to believe they were somebody.
“As a Black child in South Central Los Angeles, I attended 42nd Street Elementary, and I was asked to memorize a poem for a special guest. The Rev. Jesse Jackson,” Merritt says in the video. The poem, “I am – Somebody,” held a special place for Merritt and countless other Black youth who grew up in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
“I was a student from a low-income community, and I was labeled at risk. When Jesse Jackson said, ‘I am somebody,’ he was talking to children like me in communities like mine. That our ZIP codes were not our destiny, and that our dreams were not disposable,” Merritt continues.
Rev. Jesse Jackson began his activism while a student at North Carolina A&T, participating in protests against segregation. Eventually, his activism would lead him to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who charged Jackson with expanding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to Chicago. It was there that Jackson created the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization that advocates for economic growth and civil liberties for marginalized groups.
Despite dealing with numerous health issues later in life, including being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Jackson remained a staunch activist. Merritt recounts being able to speak with Jackson personally in 2020, during the fight to ensure Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers faced justice.
“In that moment, he told me something I’ll never forget,” Merritt recounts. “He said, ‘High-profile attention was not enough. If all we had were cameras and crowds, then our grief and our outrage would be wasted.’ We would have to channel that energy into legislative change, or it was all for naught.”
Throughout his life, Rev. Jesse Jackson would leverage his moral authority to advance diplomatic efforts. He traveled to countries like Syria and Cuba to negotiate the release of American hostages during hijackings and political crises. He even negotiated with Saddam Hussein in the early ‘90s on the eve of the first Gulf War to release American prisoners who were being used as pawns in the war effort. “He turned his pulpit into a passport, and his faith into a form of diplomacy,” Merritt says.
Every week, Merritt dives into the numbers related to the topic at hand. Jesse Jackson measured his ministry similarly. “His life insists on a harder truth: inspiration without transformation is just not enough. He measured his ministry in jobs created, students registered to vote, coalitions built, and laws changed,” Merritt says.
It’s no secret that we live in tumultuous times where it feels like norms are being violated every day, and the laws don’t apply to the powerful. The best way for us to honor Rev. Jesse Jackson is not only through kind words, but through collective action. To advocate not only for ourselves, but for each other.
I am somebody, and so are you. Let’s never forget to act like it.
SEE ALSO:
Perspective: Without Jesse Jackson, There Is No Barack Obama
Jesse Jackson’s Campaigns Offer Blueprint For Defeating American Extremism
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