“He Inspired All of Us to Dream Without Limits”

Reflections
By David Mark Greaves
Reverend Jesse Jackson was the voice of the Baby Boomers generation in Black America. His charisma was such that a commentator wrote, after seeing the reaction of teachers as Jackson walked through a school hall in Atlanta, Ga., “If he were white, he’d be elected by acclamation.”

I was a member of my father Bill’s camera film crew filming Jackson at the March 1972 National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana, when Jackson gave a speech where he repeatedly asked, “What time is it?” The crowd of delegates and leaders from around the country responded, “Nation Time!”. He called for Black doctors, black lawyers, black teachers, and said, in so many words, that it doesn’t matter what the numerator is, the common denominator was heritage, legacy, Blackness.

When Jackson finished, there was no attempt to continue business because emotion erupted in laughter, dancing, and music. He seemed to be at the height of his rhetorical powers, but there was more. I next filmed him at the July 1984 San Francisco Democratic National Convention. We were staying in a hotel with a delegation representing the disabled. In his speech at the Convention, Jackson said, “I’d rather have Franklin Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Ronald Reagan on a horse.” I remember there was laughter and joy again in that hotel lobby afterward, as they had heard someone who was speaking for them.

One of the ministers we met in Atlanta described Jackson as “The Tree Shaker.” And he and others like him were “The Jelly Makers,” working with the fruit that Jackson had excited and knocked down from the tree and were then shown how to participate in — however you may call it –the Movement, a Campaign, Operation Push, NAACP, Friends of the Students Nonvioence Coordinating Committee, or any of the many actions Rev. Jesse Jackson initiated and inspired toward the advancement of African American people.

That advancement is under threat as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the work of generations, is in danger of being eviscerated by the Supreme Court. And we have to be the ones to grab the baton from the fallen (?) hand and make the way forward as we have in the past. As Rev. Jackson would expect us to do.

Statement by Democratic State Senate Candidate Marlon Rice

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 – BROOKLYN, NY – Marlon Rice, candidate for state senate in District 25, released the following statement following news of the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson:
“A titan of justice, Rev. Jesse Jackson was the bridge that united the foundations of civil rights with the bold energy of the Black Lives Matter movement. His historic presidential campaigns taught my generation to ‘keep hope alive.’ As we navigate this period of political and moral uncertainty, may Rev. Jackson’s legacy continue to inspire us all to dream without limits.”