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If there is anybody in America who deserves to finally retire, its the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

We know the jobs not finished, that racism still flourishes, that voting rights are under assault and that the U.S. Supreme Court just took a wrecking ball to affirmative action.

Its no secret that police brutality continues, that were losing the war on poverty and that Black people suffered more than anybody else through the coronavirus pandemic.

But what more can we ask of him?

Rev. Jesse Jackson stands on Feb. 14, 2018 on the motel balcony in Memphis, Tenn. where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. (Mark Humphrey/AP)

He was there at the start of the 1960s, sitting in at segregated lunch counters with other college students

He was there, in Memphis, with Martin Luther King Jr,, talking up to King on the balcony when the fatal shot rang out.

He was there, months later, for the Poor Peoples Campaign that King had started. He was elected mayor of the Resurrection City protest camp on the National Mall, and told the crowd, I am somebody.

He delivered the eulogy for Jackie Robinson.

He fought for economic empowerment, for the release of hostages held abroad, and for the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. (Charles Kelly/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

He ran for president of the United States, and told us to keep hope alive

And we did. He didnt win in 1984. He didnt win in 1988. But his inspiring and credible campaigns laid the groundwork for a political movement that gave birth to Barack Obama.

What more can we ask?

The mantle has long been passed. The Rev Al Sharpton has for years been the most prominent civil rights activist.

But he learned at the feet of Jesse Jackson, and, like his mentor, he has made mistakes along the way.

Jackson called New York City Hymietown, and the moral leader fathered a child out of wedlock. He allegedly smeared Kings blood on his shirt before talking about his death on TV, and took a crude swipe at Obama in the months leading up to Obamas historic election win.

But the good far outweighs the bad. Its not even close.

A brace of plow mules drawing the farm wagon bearing the mahogany casket of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., along the funeral procession route in Atlanta, Ga., April 9, 1968. Reverend Jesse Jackson, in green, and Andrew Young, at the left corner of the casket, are among some of the mourners. (AP)

He has planted and nurtured seeds that are growing beyond his own organization, said Sharpton, who became a Jackson disciple as a boy preacher at the age of 12. We hope to continue in a way that makes him proud.

Jackson, 81, announced last week that he is stepping down from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, his Chicago-based civil rights perch.

His successor was scheduled to be announced at a weekend convention that includes a celebration of the 35th anniversary of his 1988 presidential campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to address the convention on Sunday.

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His commitment is unwavering, and he will elevate his lifes work by teaching ministers how to fight for social justice and continue the freedom movement, the organization said in a statement.

Jackson has been slowed in recent years by health issues, including a Parkinsons Syndrome diagnosis that he announced in 2017.

Rev. Jesse Jackson photographed in Chicago in 2018. (Teresa Crawford/AP)

Im going to make a transition pretty soon, Jackson told Fox 32 in Chicago. Ive been doing this stuff for 64 years. I was 18 years old.

Jackson said he would work with the new leadership team through the change.

I want to see us grow and prosper, he said. We have the ability to build on what weve established over the years.

Jackson will forever be linked and compared to King. But he did manage to accomplish something that King could never do. He got old.

He didnt make it past the mountaintop either, but he did keep hope alive.

Originally posted here:
Rev. Jesse Jackson kept MLK's hope and dream alive - New York Daily News