# Rev Jesse Jackson RIP **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 17, 2026, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740 "2026-02-17T11:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/21 "2026-02-17T16:14:12Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I wondered what the impression was elsewhere. He was a hero of the struggle against apartheid, and is being eulogized here by the government and other orgs. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/22 "2026-02-17T16:16:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > He was a hero of the struggle against apartheid, Being Zimbabwean, this news never really reached me, so my opinion steps up a notch. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/23 "2026-02-17T16:18:49Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > Perhaps we only got negative news coverage piped into our heads, but my view of Rev. Jackson is quite ambivalent. That could also be related to the very US format of political performative publicity and my intentional ignorance of anyone who performs such. Like all of us, Jesse Jackson was far from perfect and had many weaknesses. But he also had many strengths and his heart pushed in the right direction. I feel it’s our responsibility to remember his successes and learn from his failures. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/24 "2026-02-17T16:20:31Z")
Jackson was a towering, complicated figure. Inspiring, self-aggrandizing, and most often correct, one of those directly carrying forward MLK’s legacy. I was a big fan in the late 80s and was a delegate for him at a senate-level convention in Texas, which was pretty entertaining. I think time passed him, though, and he was sidelined. RIP to a giant. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/25 "2026-02-17T16:20:47Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I feel it’s our responsibility to remember his successes and learn from his failures. This is very reasonable, and I need to do a little self-education. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/26 "2026-02-17T16:30:35Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Jackson was a towering, complicated figure. Very well-said. That’s been my take on him, as well. Like Dinsdale, I’ve lived most of my life in the Chicago area, and my view of him is probably influenced by his ubiquitous presence in Chicago news media for decades. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Inspiring, self-aggrandizing, and most often correct, one of those directly carrying forward MLK’s legacy. This is also well-said. I acknowledge and respect all of the important work he did. He was also a self-promoter, and seemed to bring up the fact that he was there when MLK was assassinated an awful lot. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/27 "2026-02-17T16:40:31Z")
it is a big loss. many of the giant voices of the civil rights movement are passing. may his memory and message be eternal. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/28 "2026-02-17T17:17:57Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > and seemed to bring up the fact that he was there when MLK was assassinated an awful lot. That kind of experience has to have a huge effect on a person. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/29 "2026-02-17T17:19:14Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > That kind of experience has to have a huge effect on a person Oh, no doubt at all. But, IMO at least, Jackson continually name-dropped MLK, and continually reminded people that he was there that day, to buff his own bona fides. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/30 "2026-02-17T17:24:12Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Inspiring, self-aggrandizing, and most often correct, one of those directly carrying forward MLK’s legacy. I agree with all of this. His love of the camera was grating at times, but his good works earned him a solid place in history. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > He was also a self-promoter, and seemed to bring up the fact that he was there when MLK was assassinated an awful lot. This was certainly not his shiniest moment. He claimed to have held MLK’s head when he died, which was an outright lie, and he was widely criticized for trying to assume King’s role almost immediately after his death. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/31 "2026-02-17T17:44:31Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I didn’t even associate him with Chicago, he was a national figure. Same, had no idea he had any special connection to Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/32 "2026-02-17T17:47:27Z")
I was afraid this was coming. I saw him on the news a few days ago, and he looked really ill. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/33 "2026-02-17T17:55:24Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Same, had no idea he had any special connection to Chicago. It’s where he’d lived for most of his adult life, and he founded two Chicago-based civil rights / social justice organizations: Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition (which he eventually merged), and which, AFAICT, he ran up until his death. Because he lived here, he was very prominent in the media here, and was one of the people who was regularly interviewed by the local news broadcasts whenever there was a racial or social issue. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/34 "2026-02-17T19:22:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > What I found so compelling about him in the 80s/90s on TV was his manner of speaking – his speech pattern was uniquely soothing and rhythmic, almost poetic. I don’t know of anyone else who spoke like him. PJ O’Rourke, writing about the 1988 Democratic convention, in his book _Parliament of Whores_: “I did, however, want to hear Jesse Jackson speak. He is the only living American politician with a mastery of classical rhetoric. Assonance, alliteration, litotes, pleonasm, parallelism, exclamation, climax and epigram—to listen to Jesse Jackson is to hear everything mankind has learned about public speaking since Demosthenes. Thus Jackson, the advocate for people who believe themselves to be excluded from Western culture, was the only 1988 presidential candidate to exhibit any of it” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/35 "2026-02-17T19:31:45Z")
An accomplished, significant but deeply flawed and relentlessly self-promoting man. I met him once, in late 1987, when I was working for the Mike Dukakis presidential campaign in Nashua, N.H. I attended the opening of the Jackson campaign’s field office in town and we spoke briefly. May he rest in peace. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/36 "2026-02-17T20:02:47Z")
I admit I don’t know much about him. I was a very young child in the 80s. I thought he led the NAACP but I haven’t seen mention of it in the news articles. I had NO idea he was a staunch ally of LGBTQ people. That’s a big deal, especially in the Black community. I guess I was missing out this whole time. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/37 "2026-02-17T20:07:49Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I thought he led the NAACP but I haven’t seen mention of it in the news articles. As far as I know, he was never involved in NAACP leadership. After MLK’s death, Jackson increasingly sparred with Ralph Abernathy – King’s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. By '71, Jackson and Abernathy were fighting for control of the SCLC, which led to Jackson leaving, to form his own group, Operation PUSH. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/38 "2026-02-17T20:11:01Z")
Trump claimed he worked with Jesse Jackson over the years. Is this true? [Trump attacks Obama, Democrats in statement on death of Rev. Jesse Jackson - mlive.com](https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/02/trump-attacks-obama-democrats-in-statement-on-death-of-rev-jesse-jackson.html) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/39 "2026-02-17T20:16:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Trump claimed he worked with Jesse Jackson over the years. Is this true? Apparently, “kinda.” > [@](#): > > In early [1999, Jackson offered public praise for Trump](https://www.newsweek.com/jesse-jackson-and-donald-trumps-unique-relationship-11534106) during the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Wall Street Project conference, which aimed to expand minority access to corporate America and financial markets. At the January 14 event in New York, he introduced Trump with appreciation for backing the initiative—including giving the project free office space at 40 Wall Street. > > The tone and rapport changed once Trump entered partisan politics. > > In the wake of [national turmoil in the summer of 2016](https://www.newsweek.com/dallas-shooting-race-white-house-2016-election-micah-johnson-donald-trump-478923), during which two Black men died at the hands of police and five officers were fatally shot by an individual in Dallas during a protest that followed, Jackson said Trump’s prior rhetoric had “helped to seed these clouds.” He acknowledged a statement from Trump, who said there was still a lot of work still to be done "in order to make every American feel that their safety is protected,” was “significant.” > [@](#): > > When in September 2016, [Trump admitted Obama had been born in the U.S](https://www.newsweek.com/trump-still-touting-obama-birther-conspiracy-theory-behind-closed-doors-725358), Jackson [told Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-09-16/jesse-jackson-donald-trump-saw-a-lie-as-a-victory) that the former had seen "a lie as a victory,” having mobilized an audience “around fear and ignorance,” and added he should apologize to Barack Obama. > > “He has used these lies to mobilize the anti-Martin Luther King, anti-civil rights, anti-Barack’s victory forces into a solid force of fear and anger based upon that lie. It was an attempt to take away President Barack Obama’s legitimacy,” added Jackson. It seems like Trump has regularly used the positive interactions he had with Jackson decades ago as evidence that “I’m not racist!” > **[What Jesse Jackson and Donald Trump said about each other](https://www.newsweek.com/what-jesse-jackson-and-donald-trump-said-about-each-other-11533417)** > > An overview of the relationship between the late Rev. Jesse Jackson and Donald Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740/40 "2026-02-17T21:23:11Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It seems like Trump has regularly used the positive interactions he had with Jackson decades ago as evidence that “I’m not racist!” A message he no longer wishes to express, I’m sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rev-jesse-jackson-rip/1027740.md?page=3)