"But one of his most consequential legacies unfolded far from church pulpits and voting booths. It was inside technology boardrooms and much of Silicon Valley. The Reverend was incredibly instrumental in holding Silicon Valley and the big tech companies accountable, by pushing for them to put into practice diversity, equity, and inclusion. He was well aware that the technology industry was a predominately white male industry not taking into account the millions of people their tech products would affect."
"In 2014, fresh out of college at my first job at a tech PR agency, I had the privilege of working alongside Reverend Jackson and his organization, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, to drive PR and press awareness on this initiative that would fundamentally alter Silicon Valley. At the time, the tech industry spoke endlessly about changing the world but it refused to disclose who was actually building it. There were no diversity reports, demographic transparency or accountability. Jackson saw the contradiction immediately."
Reverend Jesse Jackson marched with Martin Luther King Jr., stood present after King's assassination, ran historic presidential campaigns, and influenced generations of leaders, including Barack Obama. One consequential legacy unfolded inside technology boardrooms across Silicon Valley, where Jackson pushed major tech companies to adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion and to reveal workforce demographics. He recognized that an industry dominated by white men risked encoding inequality into everyday life if its architects lacked diversity. Jackson and Rainbow PUSH Coalition attended shareholder meetings at Google and Meta, publicly challenged executives, and drove demand for demographic transparency and accountability in tech hiring and leadership.
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