00:02This is Apropos, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate.
00:09He led the U.S. civil rights movement for decades and was one of America's most influential black voices.
00:16Tributes are pouring in tonight for the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who's died at the age of 84.
00:21Many who knew and worked with him are vowing to keep hope alive in honour of his legacy.
00:27I think it was more on the reaction to his passing. Here's Monty Francis.
00:33When Barack Obama won the presidential election in 2008, becoming the United States' first black president,
00:40it was enough to bring Jesse Jackson to tears.
00:43It was a moment Jackson himself had paved the way for.
00:46He ran for president twice in the 1980s and was the first African-American to have significant success at the
00:53ballot box.
00:53In a statement, Obama wrote,
00:56Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant, adding, we stood on his
01:02shoulders.
01:02Jesse Jackson changed American politics.
01:05He was a consequential and transformative figure.
01:09Kamala Harris, the first black woman to become vice president, said in a statement,
01:13Reverend Jesse Jackson was one of America's great patriots.
01:16He spent his life summoning all of us to fulfill the promise of America and building the coalitions to make
01:22the promise real.
01:24Friends and supporters also paid tribute outside the headquarters of Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition in Chicago.
01:30I felt like he was like family.
01:32I mean, he did a lot of things for me and the community as well.
01:36What I am somebody means is that all you have to do is just keep pushing, pushing, keep pushing.
01:43And that's what Jesse taught us.
01:46In a statement, former President Bill Clinton said that Jesse Jackson championed human dignity.
01:51And former President Joe Biden described Jackson as a man of God and of the people.
01:56For his part, President Trump wrote of Jackson,
01:58he was a good man with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.
02:02Jackson was a protege of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
02:06and was at his side when King was assassinated in 1968.
02:10King's daughter, Bernice, called Jackson a courageous bridge builder,
02:15posting a photo of her father and Jackson with the caption,
02:18both now ancestors.
02:21For more on the Reverend's life and legacy,
02:23we're joined by Gloria Brown Marshall,
02:26civil rights attorney, law professor, founder of At the Law and Policy Group,
02:31and also author of several books, including the latest,
02:34A Protest History of the United States.
02:36Gloria, thanks so much for being with us on the program.
02:40So, Jesse Jackson, we heard it there in that report.
02:43He was there during many consequential moments in the long battle for racial justice in the U.S.
02:49How, for you, will he be remembered?
02:53Well, I remember the first time I ever saw him in person,
02:57I was in high school,
02:59and I remember him speaking as an invited speaker at my high school.
03:03That was Majority White.
03:04And by the end of his speech, we were all standing up and cheering and shouting out,
03:10I am somebody, and keep hope alive.
03:13And that's what really was the first impression of a civil rights activist to me.
03:18I'd seen civil rights attorneys and even had one in my family,
03:21but to see a civil rights activist to understand that they have to bring together your emotions
03:27and your head, your heart and your head.
03:30It's not just the practical and the logical, but the hope.
03:35And that's what he represented.
03:36And that's what I think about in the times that we were on panels together
03:40and had conversations, was that he kept that spirit the entire time into his 80s.
03:46He was spirited.
03:47I saw him a few years ago, and even though he was ill,
03:50he still had that boyish smile and that spirit and that sense of hope.
03:55And tribute's been paid to him today from right across the political spectrum.
04:00We saw Barack Obama there, Donald Trump also talking about his legacy.
04:05How do you think, and can you tell us a little bit about how Jesse Jackson
04:11reshaped American history and diplomacy?
04:15Back in 1968, when King was assassinated, the sense that the civil rights movement
04:23had lost its greatest leader or the greatest leader of the 20th century,
04:28and that it was now, you know, flailing.
04:31Who was going to move forward?
04:33But Jesse Jackson was a young person in that group of elders.
04:37And so he picked up the baton, and he carried it into the 70s and 80s.
04:43And then he looked at the political spectrum and said, wait a minute, you know,
04:48we're not just going to be third-party candidates.
04:50We should also go for the mainstream nominations for the Democratic presidency.
04:55And he did that.
04:56And he walked the walk and he talked the talk.
05:00And what I mean is poverty.
05:02He grew up in poverty and stark poverty.
05:04And he understood that poverty, once you take away race, is something that no one wants to live with.
05:11And so he was able to speak across racial lines, religious lines.
05:15He was able to speak across ethnicities and regions of the country,
05:18because America is very truly divided in classism and regions and dialects.
05:23And so he was able to span the country, speaking of people having a better life.
05:30And with that message, he not only became a viable political candidate,
05:34but became somebody who could voice the concerns of the people in a way nationally
05:39that others had not been able to do in the same way.
05:42And what kind of difference did he make to Black voters more generally?
05:47He's credited with helping to register millions of them.
05:53Because of the message of hope, when he spoke at the Democratic National Committee,
05:58he spoke there in a way that said that even if you have nothing, you have hope always.
06:06You may not have the material means, but you have hope.
06:09And with that hope, you can keep pushing forward.
06:12And that's why it was Operation Push, that he would continue to have people push for their dreams,
06:19to keep a dream alive under such harsh circumstances, sometimes in a country that has so much,
06:27and yet you see all the country has.
06:30And if you're born into poverty, if you're living where you have limited resources,
06:35then it's easy to give up and feel angry that all of this great wealth is for others and not
06:40for you.
06:41And what he said to young Black voters and young voters across the country,
06:46that you can create your own dream.
06:49You can carve your own place out of this country.
06:52You don't have to follow the very path that everyone else followed.
06:56Look at me.
06:57I was born in poverty, and look where I am now.
07:00And being a reverend and having that pulpit, having to be this great orator,
07:04or having learned from other great orators like King, how to feel the audience's pain
07:11and express it in a way that still gives them hope.
07:14That's what he was able to do with young people.
07:16And that's why the people decided to vote.
07:19They might have thought he may not win, but they had the hope that he would.
07:23And, Gloria, his death, of course, comes at a very particular moment in U.S. history.
07:29Donald Trump, of course, cracking down on immigration, on diversity.
07:34Are Jesse Jackson's aspirations and also his frustrations,
07:38are they as relevant now as they were when he was starting out in activism?
07:43I think his death is going to push people to realize that we cannot rely on the work
07:53and sacrifices of other generations, that we have to push forward, have a vision forward.
08:00And that vision, in my estimation, is democracy, diversity, literacy, and health.
08:06Those four pillars, because diversity has been a part of this country for before this country even existed.
08:14Africans were in North America in the 1600s and even the 1500s.
08:18So to deny diversity is denied that this country has been as diverse with Latinos,
08:25with people from different parts of Europe.
08:27So we need to restart and give more energy to the protests that are taking place,
08:34pushing back against Donald Trump and his regime, and letting people know the power of the people.
08:41And that's what Jesse Jackson had.
08:42He understood the power of the people.
08:45Yes, there can be lawsuits.
08:47Yes, you can have politicians.
08:49But the power of the people is great.
08:51And he harnessed that.
08:52And I think that his death is going to trigger the harnessing of the power of the people again
08:58for us to go forward with a vision of this country, a diverse country, and not one that's just run
09:04by oligarchs.
09:05And, you know, the success largely of the civil rights movement, it was about convincing American society
09:12that racism essentially and discrimination are wrong.
09:16Is that still the case in the Trump era?
09:20I think, having seen the horrible depictions that came out of the White House of President Barack Obama
09:29and First Lady Michelle Obama, I'm not even going to go into the details.
09:34I'm sure it made global news.
09:36Then we know that this regime has a racist bent, that we've seen hundreds of thousands of Black employees
09:47lose their jobs in the federal government.
09:49We know that Barack Obama and his regime have this penchant, obsessed jealousy with the success of Barack Obama.
09:59We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion is targeted because it has assisted African Americans.
10:07But also, African Americans have worked so hard against all odds to be in positions of success.
10:16And that jealousy of our progress, despite all the obstacles that we still face,
10:22is something that I think is a target, that progress of this administration.
10:27And I think we need to keep our hope alive, know that our ancestors and people like Jesse Jackson,
10:33Martin Luther King, and others in the civil rights movement had to withstand more using less.
10:39But they had the power of the people.
10:40They had the power of hope.
10:42And the other thing about Jesse Jackson, he was a strategist.
10:44He was a tactician.
10:46He also could go into boardrooms as well as into the pool hall.
10:50He could talk to all different types of people.
10:53And I think to get people power now and to bring people together, we need leaders who can talk to
10:58all different types of people where they stand
11:01and understand that this country is a diverse place.
11:03And we cannot undermine diversity and try to appease this administration.
11:09You cannot appease a dictator.
11:11And giving away the progress of Black people hoping to appease this dictatorship is not going to win in the
11:17end.
11:18But it will hurt Black progress even more.
11:20And so I think in the name of Jesse Jackson, we need to hold on to that progress, have allies
11:26that can come together,
11:27and do what we need to do to maintain a positive democracy and direction in this country.
11:34And I think Jesse Jackson's death is going to make us rethink that some people have stayed in the background
11:42on the sidelines.
11:43I think his death is going to cause them to say, it's time for me to step into the fray.
11:48It's time for me to do what I need to do, just like Jesse Jackson did.
11:52Gloria, we'll have to leave it there for now.
11:54We do really appreciate your time on the programme.
11:56Thanks so much for joining us.
11:58That is Gloria Brown Marshall, civil rights attorney, law professor and author.
12:03Thanks so much.
12:03And we'll see you next time.
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