NNPA pays tribute to Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson

By Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.President and CEO, Nationwide Newspaper Publishers Affiliation

(NNPA NEWSWIRE) – God at all times will bless the oppressed with leaders who’re fearless, sensible, audacious, and transformative. We thank God for the life, the legacy, and the enduring management of the Rev. Dr. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

On behalf of the Nationwide Newspaper Publishers Affiliation (NNPA) representing the Black Press of America, we prolong our sincerest condolences to the Jackson household. Management issues. Jesse Jackson’s management within the Civil Rights Motion in America and the human rights motion all through the world was excellent. Jackson uttered a robust penetrating voice for the unvoiced. His braveness on the battlefield for freedom, justice and equality was unparalleled.

There’s an outdated African proverb that claims when a frontrunner of the village transitions, the spirit of the chief stays on the middle of the way forward for the village.Actually, in the present day in 2026 our nation and world are nonetheless challenged by racism, antisemitism, hatred and inhumanity. The spirit of Jesse Jackson lives on on the middle of the ever evolving and unfolding “freedom motion” all through the world.

Golden Frinks, the North Carolina state subject secretary for the Southern Christian Management Convention (SCLC) below the management of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Jr., recruited me after I was 14 years outdated in 1962 to be the North Carolina statewide youth coordinator for SCLC. I grew up within the Civil Rights Motion. Jesse Jackson was a mentor and a colleague who I admired. I’ve a whole lot of vivid recollections of after we labored and struggled collectively for the liberation of all humanity.

I mourn the passing of Jesse Jackson Sr. by rededicating my life and ministry to maintain combating for freedom and equal justice.

I witnessed firsthand the integrity, the movement-building genius, and the audacity of Martin Luther King Jr and all those that labored with him together with the Rev. Andrew Younger, the Rev. David Abernathy, the Rev. Hosea Williams, the Rev. Fred Shuttleworth, the Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and the Rev. Jesse Jackson together with many others.

From the March on Washington in 1963, to the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March in 1965, to the Poor Individuals’s Marketing campaign in 1968, the Civil Rights Motion was profitable in stepping into regulation the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Truthful Housing Act.

After the tragic and brutal assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., the Civil Rights Motion was surprised and fractured.Thanks, nevertheless, to the steadfast braveness and dedication of Mrs. Coretta Scott King and others in SCLC, the Civil Rights Motion moved into the Nineteen Seventies with renewed vigor to maintain Dr. King’s dream alive and vibrant.

In 1972, Jesse Jackson was one of many keynote audio system to the Nationwide Black Political Conference in Gary, Ind. I keep in mind conferring with Rev. Jackson whereas in Gary concerning the escalating violence in opposition to public faculty desegregation in North Carolina and throughout the South. 

Within the Nineteen Eighties, Jackson’s two presidential campaigns ignited unprecedented Black voter turnout and helped to remodel the Democratic Social gathering to be extra progressive. The Rev. Wyatt T. Walker and I had been the clergy coordinators for Jesse Jackson’s campaigns for president and “Run Jesse Run” turned the anthem of the progressive political wrestle throughout the nation.

Rev. Jesse Jackson was a fantastic orator. However he additionally was a severe and efficient author of civil rights commentaries for the Black Press of America for many years. It’s our accountability to make sure that the legacy of Rev. Jackson will proceed to be cherished and used as a stimulant for “Preserving Hope Alive.” Jackson was a “freedom fighter.”

Every technology has to take the baton of historical past and to proceed to win victories for freedom even within the face of these in energy who try and erase our historical past and to stifle the liberty motion.

God bless the legacy of Jesse L Jackson Sr. Lengthy stay the spirit of the liberty wrestle. Everlasting salute to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.