On Feb. 17, life slowed as we paused to honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr.
On that day, Rev. Jackson joined the lineage of ancestors who shaped the moral architecture of the late-20th-century civil rights movement. Rev. Jackson was a builder of coalitions, a translator of moral imperative into electoral force and a strategist who understood the utility of organized power.
To understand Rev. Jackson’s significance in our own lives and as a moral force in American democracy, we must situate him within movement history.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, Rev. Jackson rose to national prominence as a young minister and organizer working alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was in Memphis in April 1968 at the Lorraine Motel when Dr. King was assassinated. That moment symbolized a generational transfer of moral urgency. Rev. Jackson would spend the next five decades translating that urgency into political action.
In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and later the Rainbow Coalition as organizing frameworks rooted in economic justice, political participation and global human rights.
Long before there were online accountability campaigns targeting corporations, Rev. Jackson pressed major companies to diversify executive leadership and invest in Black communities. He challenged companies whose profits depended on Black consumers but whose leadership, policies and practices excluded them. He understood what too many still resist: civil rights without economic leverage leave structural inequities intact.
In 1984, Rev. Jackson adapted and nationalized the “Rainbow Coalition.” He proposed a durable political alignment of Black voters, Latino communities, labor unions, poor white people, LGBTQ people and farmers — a coalition grounded not in identity alone, but in shared material interests.
Rev. Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1984 and again in 1988. His 1984 campaign was historic; his 1988 campaign transformative. He won 11 primaries and caucuses, secured more than 7 million votes, and finished second in the Democratic delegate count. His campaigns helped register millions of new voters and reshaped the party platform toward more progressive positions on health care access, voting rights enforcement, education and apartheid in South Africa. When we see Black elected officials running for office, we must remember that Rev. Jackson was their forerunner, even as Shirley Chisholm was his political predecessor.
The American electorate we talk about today — one that is diverse, multiracial and coalition-based — did not materialize spontaneously. Rev. Jackson helped fuel it.
His influence extended beyond domestic politics. In 1984, he negotiated the release of U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Robert Goodman from Syria. He engaged leaders in Cuba. He advocated against apartheid and brought international visibility to human rights struggles when formal diplomatic channels stalled.
But beyond strategy, Rev. Jackson was a preacher of possibility. He would proclaim, “I am somebody,” in call and response with children across the country. That affirmation was not performance; it was psychological liberation. In an era when Black children were routinely marginalized by public systems, Rev. Jackson insisted on pride as a political act.
In this moment, voting rights are being gutted state by state and economic inequality has reached historic heights. Further, democratic norms and standard constitutional practices are being upended. Now, especially now, the question his life leaves us is not simply how we will remember him or honor his legacy, but how we will bend history for generations to come. Even still, the deeper measure of our learning the lessons his beautiful life offers is whether we will build coalitions wide enough, courageous enough and disciplined enough to build a new democracy.
Constance Harper is vice president of strategic impact and innovation at the Deaconess Foundation.