Some of you who have seen the movie Ocean’s 13 may remember the line near the end when George Clooney’s character, Danny Ocean, confronts Al Pacino’s character, Willie Bank, with this gem: “You should know better. You shook Sinatra’s hand.”…
‘Send Me’: Jesse Jackson’s Legacy And The Courage To Answer The Call
In the book of Isaiah, God is looking for a messenger to guide a hardened and resistant people. And the Lord asks, “Whom shall I send and who will go with us?” To which Isaiah replies, “Here I am, Lord,…
We’ve lost one more person who could say, ‘I was there’
On Friday, our nation bid its final farewell to a Civil Rights icon. As thousands of mourners poured into House of Hope Baptist Church in Chicago to remember Jesse Jackson Sr., I was reminded of my own powerful moment with a…
South Carolina Honors Jackson As 3 Former Presidents To Attend Funeral
Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are expected to attend the funeral of the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday at the House of Hope Church in Chicago — an event being billed as “The People’s Celebration” — following…
Keep hope alive: The legacy of Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. died Feb. 17. Like his mentor, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson has left a lasting impact on our nation and world. So what is that legacy? Some people will remember Jese Jackson as a protester. After…
‘If you want to honor my father, then do what he did’
“If you want to honor my father, then do what he did,” Jonathan L. Jackson told the opening session of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference in Chicago Feb. 23. The son of Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson brought the crowd…
Jesse Jackson’s complex history with American Jews
For me, the moment that defined the late Rev. Jesse Jackson was the celebratory rally after Barack Obama won the presidency. I was watching it on television with my father, of blessed memory. When the camera focused on Jackson, you could see…
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr.: An American icon
This week, the nation pauses to honor the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson, an American icon whose voice shaped movements, elections, diplomacy and generations of hope. For more than six decades, Jackson stood at the intersection of faith and…
My ‘Emmaus’ encounter with Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson once said: “I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.” On Feb. 17, God called…
How Jesse Jackson embodied Southern politics − and changed American elections
Holding hands with other prominent Black leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 2025, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Like several survivors of that violent day in 1965,…
Why did Haynes resign as head of Rainbow PUSH? ‘He did not have the full authority to actually do the job’
Freddie Haynes has been mum on why he abruptly resigned as successor to Jesse Jackson leading the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, but a Chicago columnist is spilling the tea no one wants to talk about. “The issue is not that Haynes…
Four sermons
I consider myself fortunate to have come of age in the 1960s and to have been educated at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the early 1970s. None of us has much control over the time in which we live. Although…