As we remember the life and legacy of civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84, we air remarks by Senator Bernie Sanders from a 2024 tribute held during the Democratic National Convention. Sanders, whose own two runs for president galvanized progressives across the United States, hailed Jackson’s campaigns in 1984 and 1988 for building a broad coalition for social justice. “Jesse Jackson is one of the very most significant political leaders in this country in the last 100 years,” Sanders said. “Jesse’s contribution to modern history is not just bringing us together; it is bringing us together around a progressive agenda.”
Transcript
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AMY GOODMAN: In 2024, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, friends and supporters of the Reverend Jackson gathered in Chicago to pay him tribute. This is Senator Bernie Sanders.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I happen to believe that Jesse Jackson is one of the very most significant political leaders in this country in the last 100 years. And I think sometimes we take for granted all that he has accomplished and the walls that he has broken down. Today, when people say, you know, Black and white and Latino and Asian American and Native American and gay and straight have got to stand together, people were not talking like that 30 or 40 years ago.
And I will never forget one of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen. Do you all recall the Reverend Jackson standing on a bale of hay in Iowa? Anybody remember that? Surrounded, surrounded by white farmers. And the point that he was making there, which was a point people were not making in America at that time, is that the people who were destroying — the corporate forces that were destroying family-based agriculture for white farmers in Iowa were exactly the same people who were exploiting Black workers and Latino workers. And back in ’84 or ’88, that was a pretty profound statement.
So, I’m not going to list for you the achievements of Jesse Jackson. You know how often he has ended up in jail