Sharpton<\/a> said. \u201cIt was Jesse changing [the rules] to proportional delegate representation is how Barack Obama was made the nominee. Hillary Clinton won more blue states\u2026 but he was able to accumulate more delegate votes. So [Jackson] literally changed the party moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\nAt a press conference, Sharpton described a phone call he received from Jackson\u2019s son, Yusef, who put Sharpton on speakerphone so he could pray in private with the Jackson family.<\/p>\n
![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BAV2240.jpg\" "\\"Reverend")
Few New Yorkers knew the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who died early on Tuesday morning, quite like Rev. Al Sharpton.
The two ministers, turned champions of equality in America, forged a relationship that lasted more than 70 years as they continued the fight for justice inherited from great civil rights leaders, from Medgar Evers to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u00a0Photo by Jonathan Portee<\/p>\n
Sharpton, who had become interested in activism in his youth, met Jackson while working as a preacher at his local church. At age 13, he was appointed youth director of the Brooklyn branch of Operation Breadbasket, an organization founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., led by Jackson, and the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which focused on improving the economic conditions of Black communities across the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s more responsible than anyone for teaching me activism,\u201d Sharpton said.\n<\/p>\n
Sharpton also credits Jackson\u2019s 1988 presidential run with providing the momentum needed for former NYC Mayor David Dinkins to win his race just a year later.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn \u201988 [Jackson] ran again, got seven million votes and won the city of New York. He lost the state to Dukakis, but he won the city of New York which made us believe in \u201889 we could win,\u201d Sharpton said. \u201cDavid Dinkins became the mayor in \u201889 off Jackson votes.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his time as a leader of the civil rights movement, Jackson marched alongside prominent figures fighting for freedom and enfranchisement. He was so integral to the SCLC that on the day that Dr. King was assassinated, Jackson was there at his side, on the balcony of the Lorraine hotel in Memphis.<\/p>\n
Knowing this, Sharpton made a point of noting that Jackson\u2019s activism didn\u2019t end in 1988, with his presidential campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been there with us,\u201d Sharpton said. \u201cWhen we did George Floyd he was right there in the church, he was there with us for Trayvon Martin \u2014 he would never stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of Jackson\u2019s passion and longevity in the fight for global equality, Sharpton recalls Jackson saying to him, \u201cYou gotta remember how Dr. King was only 39 years old\u2026 Medgar Evers was killed at 39 years old, Malcolm X was killed at 39 years old. We were never raised to be 40 years old. I woke up one day at 55, there\u2019s no retirement plan for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rev. Al Sharpton exits a car in Midtown Manhattan on Feb. 17, 2026. Photo by Jonathan Portee Few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[58092,58093,11159,58094,58095,14743,58096,58097,57805,25710,58098,9,692,56,63,65,64,58099,58100,58101],"class_list":{"0":"post-136675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-1984-presidential-campaign","9":"tag-1988-presidential-election","10":"tag-al-sharpton","11":"tag-black-political-activism","12":"tag-civil-rights-movement","13":"tag-david-dinkins","14":"tag-democratic-party-primaries","15":"tag-george-floyd-protests","16":"tag-jesse-jackson","17":"tag-martin-luther-king-jr","18":"tag-medgar-evers","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-new-york-politics","21":"tag-ny","22":"tag-nyc","23":"tag-nyc-headlines","24":"tag-nyc-news","25":"tag-operation-breadbasket","26":"tag-proportional-delegate-representation","27":"tag-southern-christian-leadership-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Reverend](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BAV2216.jpg\" "\\"Reverend")
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