Famed Civil Rights advocate Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. died Tuesday at 84.
A well-known orator and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson ran for president in 1984 and 1988.
He walked shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during protests and marches of the 1960s and was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Jackson’s activism spanned decades, from the civil rights era through the Black Lives Matter movement of the 2010s. Born and raised in South Carolina, he became a nationally recognized civil rights leader, with the Bay Area frequently featured in his speaking engagements.
He spoke at college rallies, worked with local organizers and elected officials, and accepted his first presidential nomination during the 1984 Democratic National Convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
Later in his career, Jackson focused on diversifying Silicon Valley’s workforce.
“There’s not a talent shortage, there’s an opportunity shortage,” Jackson told me while discussing the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley during an interview in 2015.
Standing in a hotel hallway at the Black Enterprise TechConneXt Summit, he said of Silicon Valley employment, “There’s nothing here that we shouldn’t be a part of, and we intend to do just that.”
His comments came at a pivotal time. The previous year, major Silicon Valley companies were required to publicly report workplace demographics, revealing an industry dominated by white men.
Jackson had just launched the PUSHTech 2020 Conference to create more opportunities in tech for underrepresented groups.
“This is the Civil Rights of our time,” Jackson said in a 2016 interview with TechCrunch, while discussing the PUSHTech 2020 Conference. He said efforts to diversify the tech industry centered on marginalized people having “access to capital,” a principle he linked to the civil rights movement.
Jackson’s work in the Bay Area began long before he focused on Silicon Valley. In the 1970s, he spoke several times on UC Berkeley’s campus, pushing for civil rights at home and criticizing war abroad.
During the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, Jackson delivered a speech urging people to recognize the power of America’s diversity.
“I just want young America to do me one favor, just one favor,” he said. “Exercise the right to dream.”
Thirty years later, in 2014, Jackson stood shoulder to shoulder with young students at Oakland’s Emiliano Zapata Street Academy High School. From the school’s stairs, surrounded by two dozen students and educators, he spoke to reporters about issues including gender wage gaps, lack of affordable housing, predatory bank loans and extrajudicial police killings.
He challenged Silicon Valley companies to invest in S.T.E.M. education for young students in communities like Oakland. He cited the work of Nelson Mandela efforts to end apartheid in South Africa and King’s efforts to end the Vietnam War.
“We have a way of loving martyrs, but not loving marchers — those who fight for change,” Jackson said, jabbing at this country’s affinity for people once they’re dead and no longer a threat to the status quo. “Those who fight for change must take the risk and the sacrifice to make it happen.”
