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This week, our nation lost a giant of the Civil Rights Movement. The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., died peacefully on February 17 at the age of 84.
A Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate (two decades before Barack Obama was elected as our nation's first Black president), Jesse Jackson marched alongside the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., and, as King's protege, took up the civil rights cause following MLK's assassination.
"Reverend Jackson remained steadfast in his mission to pave the way for the next generation of freedom fighters. He was a man of the people, welcomed in even the most rural areas, whether serving the impoverished or bringing his masterful guidance to hostage negotiations with world leaders. He was a mentor, a voice for the voiceless, and a symbol of resilience. [His] passing marks the end of an era, but his vision of justice, equality, and unity will live on through the countless lives he touched," Jackson's family and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which Jackson founded, said in a statement.
Like Dr. King, Reverend Jackson gave a generation of Black and Brown boys and men someone to serve as a role model who looked like us. He helped a generation of young people believe that we do belong in rooms where decisions are made.
Let's honor Reverend Jackson not just with words, but with actions. Let's keep building the kind of country he believed in.
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