{"id":487373,"date":"2026-02-18T06:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487373\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:33:09","slug":"jesse-jackson-helped-lay-the-groundwork-for-barack-obama-and-kept-the-fight-for-justice-in-the-public-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487373\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson helped lay the groundwork for Barack Obama and kept the fight for justice in the public eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without Reverend Jesse Jackson, there would be no Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

This acknowledgement has been made by many since Jackson’s death, but also by Obama himself, who has paid tribute to the American civil rights leader, activist and political trailblazer who died Tuesday local time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was 84.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement with former first lady Michelle Obama posted to social media, Obama spoke of how Jackson inspired and created opportunities for African Americans.<\/p>\n

“Michelle got her first glimpse of political organising at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager,” Obama wrote.<\/p>\n

“And in his two historic runs for president he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”<\/p>\n

Across the political divide, US President Donald Trump has paid tribute to Jackson in a lengthy post to his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n

“He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts,'” Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

“He was very gregarious \u2014 Someone who truly loved people!”<\/p>\n

Jesse Jackson dies age 84<\/a><\/p>\n

The two-time Democratic presidential hopeful remembered for powerful speeches died peacefully surrounded by loved ones, his family said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Black Entertainment Television (BET) journalist Yesha Callahan told ABC News that Jackson was respected across political affiliations.<\/p>\n

“I think he appealed to possibly conservatives because he was a minister and believed in Jesus \u2026 even though he didn’t uphold the values that certain religious sects have,” Callahan said.<\/p>\n

“He was religious, but he wasn’t the type of Christian who persecuted other people.”<\/p>\n

Many of Jackson’s famous quotes were a testament to his Christian values, including: “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.”<\/p>\n

Callahan says that line captured Jackson’s theology and politics in one sentence.<\/p>\n

“Dignity was not negotiable,” Callahan wrote on the BET website.<\/p>\n

“Justice required action, not condescension.”<\/p>\n

Callahan says Jackson has always loomed large in her consciousness and that of her 97-year-old grandmother, who always said she would see a Black president in her lifetime.<\/p>\n

“Growing up, when Jesse Jackson first ran [for president], I was a kid,” Callahan said.<\/p>\n

“[My grandmother] was so proud.<\/p>\n

“She had her Jesse Jackson T-shirt, I had my little Jesse Jackson T-shirt.<\/p>\n

“So, she felt that he could be president, and then he ran again, and she was kind of sad, and she always used to say, ‘Before I die I want to see a Black president.’<\/p>\n

“And she’s still alive and kicking, and she got to see Barack Obama twice.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

BET journalist Yesha Callahan was dressed in a Jesse Jackson campaign T-shirt as a child. (Supplied: Yesha Callahan)<\/p>\n

Callahan says her grandmother watched Jackson’s presidential campaigns with the focus “usually reserved for her five-hour church services”.<\/p>\n

“She had pictures of Jesse Jackson,” Callahan said.<\/p>\n

“She loved [Jackson and thought] he was so handsome, he was charismatic.<\/p>\n

“She was enthralled with Jesse Jackson.<\/p>\n

“One day, she said, ‘Oh, I hope I get to meet him.’<\/p>\n

“She never got to meet him, but she loved that man.”<\/p>\n

Political bids put reality in motion<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm was the first Black person to run for president in 1972, but Jackson was the first to get on the ballot for all 50 states.<\/p>\n

He first ran for president in 1984 but lost the Democratic primary contest.<\/p>\n

He ran again in 1988, winning almost 7 million primary votes for the Democratic nomination and briefly leading the Democratic race after a historic victory in Michigan.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party changed its rules from winner-takes-all to proportional allocation after Jackson’s surprising performance in that campaign.<\/p>\n

That rule remains in place today and helped Obama maximise his delegate count in the primaries that he lost before he was elected as America’s 44th president in 2008.<\/p>\n

Both of Jackson’s bids energised Black voters, with some casting a ballot for the first time and many returning to put Obama in the White House.<\/p>\n

“I think he paved the way for Barack Obama and even people after him because he showed that this Black candidate can get people of all races and genders to vote for them,” Callahan said.\"Barack<\/p>\n

Obama poses with Jackson before the Annual Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr Scholarship Breakfast in Chicago in 2007. (Reuters: John Gress)<\/p>\n

Jackson advocated for marginalised communities, leading crusades for voting rights, employment opportunities, education and health care \u2014 his advocacy spread wide in America and abroad.<\/p>\n

He also pushed for cultural change and joined calls in the late 1980s to identify Black people in the United States as African Americans.<\/p>\n

“To be called African Americans has cultural integrity,” Jackson said at the time.<\/p>\n

“It puts us in our proper historical context.<\/p>\n

“Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some base, some historical cultural base.”<\/p>\n

Jackson was considered a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Martin Luther King Jr and was with him on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated.<\/p>\n

In his later years, Jackson remained active, even after disclosing in 2017 that he had sought treatment for Parkinson’s disease.<\/p>\n

That diagnosis was revised last year, when he was found to have progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder with overlapping symptoms.<\/p>\n

In 2000, then-president Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honour.<\/p>\n

Clinton is one of many who have offered their condolences.<\/p>\n

“Reverend Jackson never stopped working for a better America with brighter tomorrows,” he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without Reverend Jesse Jackson, there would be no Barack Obama. This acknowledgement has been made by many since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,246577,246581,246578,246580,246579,427],"class_list":["post-487373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-jesse-jackson","tag-jesse-jackson-death","tag-jesse-jackson-politics","tag-jesse-jackson-reaction","tag-jesse-jackson-running-for-president","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}