PFLAG members and supporters everywhere are mourning Rev. Jesse Jackson. He was a civil rights leader and an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.
“Today, as we learn of the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson, we mourn the loss of a giant among us. When many refused to acknowledge the existence and struggle of LGBTQ+ people, Rev. Jackson saw us, affirmed us and demanded equality inclusively. In his address to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, Rev. Jackson named us specifically as part of the fabric of the ‘American Quilt.’ He has shown up for and marched with the LGBTQ+ movement through the AIDS crisis, marriage equality, and ever after. Rev. Jackson’s leadership and allyship for LGBTQ+ people will be felt profoundly by his PFLAG family. We will honor his legacy as we continue to strive to achieve justice and equality for all.” Said Brian K. Bond, the CEO of PFLAG National.
Rev. Jesse Jackson was the Baptist minister as well as a two-time presidential candidate who was a Civil Rights activist after Martin Luther King Jr. died.
“Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” says the Jackson family in a statement.
“Our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices. Carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice. Reverend Jackson stood wherever dignity was under attack, from apartheid abroad to injustice at home. His voice echoed in boardrooms and in jail cells, says Civil Rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton.
Jackson had revealed in 2017 that he had been Parkinson’s, that he was treated as an outpatient at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
He gained traction during the Civil Rights era along with King. In 1984, during his first Democratic presidential race, he won 18% of primary vote. He was an organizer with the Congress of Racial Equality. He participated in marches, sit-ins; he went to North Carolina A&T State University. He got a degree in sociology. He garnered student support for King during divinity studies at Chicago Theological Seminary.
Jackson joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to work with King full time. “We knew he was going to do a good job, but he’s done better than a good job,” said King.
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