The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at age 84, was known not only as a tireless advocate for the civil rights movement but as one of its most dynamic orators. He spoke tirelessly for the poor and marginalized on issues ranging from voting rights to housing. Jackson also gave numerous speeches as a leader of the Rainbow/PUSH coalition and as a presidential candidate in the 1980s. In his later years, he did the same for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Here are some notable and defining words from Jackson.
At the 1984 Democratic National Convention during his first run for president, he said:
“America is not like a blanket—one piece of unbroken fabric, same color, same texture, same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.”
He encouraged him in his convention speech four years later, when he nearly won the Democratic nomination in 1988:
“You must never give up. You may get there or you may not, but you have to know that you are qualified and that you are resilient and resilient. We must never give up. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive.”
He told students at Kansas State University in November 1993 about taking a stand against the rise in violent crime:
“At this point, we are on the defensive as a struggle, as a human struggle. Fear: it pushes back hope. Cowardice pushes back courage. Death takes away the joy of life. Drugs are beyond hope. Escapism is beyond embrace. When youth comes back to life, you have the energy, the strength, the need, and the moral authority to make America better and the whole world safer.”
In Virginia, at the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge in September 2008, he said of the new span:
“It must lead to more futures and fewer funerals for young people. It must embrace Dr. King’s last dream, a campaign for the poor, where everyone can come together with work, income, education and health care. A bridge that leads us from the racial battlefield to economic common ground. It leads us to healing.”
He told students at the Cambridge Union Society in England in December 2013:
“Common ground leads to alliance, cooperation, reconciliation and redemption, to a higher moral and economic ground. The challenge of this new world, linked to technology, is a challenge that you must bear and share. I want to say to you in particular, young people: keep reaching beyond your reach, keep dreaming beyond your circumstances, keep dreaming of the new Europe. When young people act, the world changes.”
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