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.