#jesse-jackson

#jesse-jackson

He came and spoke at an all-seats-taken, queue-around-the-block event organised by Operation Black Vote. And after 10 minutes of his address, part lectern exposition, part cadence-littered sermon, the reason for much of the fuss and awe became apparent. I am somebody. Shorn of context, the sentence sounds self evident, perhaps trite. Adapted from a 1950s poem by Rev William Holmes Borders Sr, Jackson made it his mantra.

The eloquent Baptist minister was raised in the segregated US South. He became a close associate of Martin Luther King and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017. He spent decades advocating for the rights of Black Americans and other minorities dating back to the turmoil of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.