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Rev. Jesse Jackson: The Campaign That Taught a Generation to Dream —
From Chicago to Southeast Queens and
the World
From Chicago to Southeast Queens and
the World
✊🏾 By Kamau Austin and the Southeast Queens Scoop Resource Team
The world lost a freedom fighter today, but in truth, Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson never belonged to one place. He moved through history like a drumbeat — from the cotton fields of South Carolina to the streets of Chicago, from the voting lines of the American South to the townships of Africa, from the global stage to the storefront churches and block associations of Southeast Queens.
Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84, closing a chapter in the modern Civil Rights Movement that stretched from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final days to the rise of a Black presidency.
But for those of us who came of political age in 1984 — this is not just an obituary.
This is a memory.
This is a movement.
This is personal.
The Man Who Carried King’s Mantle Into the Economic Battlefield
Jackson was not only a marcher. He was an architect of economic justice as civil rights.
Through Operation Breadbasket and later PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition, he forced corporations to hire Black workers, invest in Black communities, and open boardroom doors that had been sealed since slavery.
He understood something that Southeast Queens has always known:
Political power without economic power is a promise without a budget.
Long before “supplier diversity” became a corporate buzzword…
long before “DEI” became a national debate…
Jackson was negotiating billions in jobs, contracts, and investment for Black America.
He globalized the struggle — negotiating the release of prisoners in the Middle East and the Balkans, standing for democracy in Africa, and turning the Black freedom movement into an international human-rights language.
1984: When Hope Walked the Streets of Southeast Queens
For many of us in Southeast Queens, Jesse Jackson was not a distant figure on television.
He was the campaign.
In 1984, in what was then the 65% Black 6th Congressional District — represented by a white congressman and structurally disconnected from its demographic reality — Jackson’s presidential run did something the traditional political establishment could not:
It unified the un-unifiable.
- The Nation of Islam.
- The Five Percenters.
- The National Black United Front.
- Rev. Herbert Daughtry’s African People’s Christian Organization.
- Allen AME in South Jamaica.
Street organizations. Church people. Nationalists. Integrationists. Young militants. First-time voters.
All moving in the same direction.
Not because they agreed on everything —
but because Jesse Jackson made them believe they were part of the same future.
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Rev. Jessie Jackson Continues After
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The Campaign That Built Black Congressional Power in Queens
From a Southeast Queens lens, as an activist, the Jackson campaign was not symbolic.
It was structural.
It created the political pipeline that led to:
- Alton R. Waldon Jr.
- Rev. Floyd Flake — A Jackson delegate → To Congressman
- Gregory Meeks
That campaign trained organizers.
It built voter lists.
It created coalition muscle.
It taught a generation how to run for office.
For many activists — including those walking the streets, knocking doors, and organizing churches in 1984 — Jesse Jackson was political graduate school.
You didn’t just support him.
You learned how power works.
The Prototype for Barack Obama
When Barack Obama said he stood on Jackson’s shoulders, it wasn’t poetry — it was infrastructure.
Jackson proved:
- A Black candidate could compete nationally
- Black voters could form a multiracial coalition
- The South could be contested
- Delegates could be won
- The narrative could change
Obama’s path to the White House ran through the road Jesse cleared in 1984 and expanded in 1988.
History often celebrates the first to arrive.
But movements remember the one who built the road.
“Keep Hope Alive” Was an Economic Development Strategy
In Southeast Queens, hope is not abstract.
Hope is:
- homeownership
- small-business capital
- community control of political districts
- contracts for Black firms
- schools that produce leadership
Jackson’s message translated directly into the local fight for:
- Black representation
- redistricting justice
- economic access
He made voting feel like ownership.
A Movement That Was Also a Memory
For those who walked that campaign:
This is not just national history.
This is:
- late nights in church basements
- leaflets on Jamaica Avenue
- coalition meetings where rivals became allies
- learning Robert’s Rules of Order and street strategy in the same week
This is where many of us: got our political chops.
From Selma to Southeast Queens to the World
Jackson’s life formed a bridge:
Dr. King → Rainbow Coalition → Black political class → Obama → today’s movement for economic justice.
He was the last major figure who:
- stood at King’s side
- ran a national campaign rooted in Black liberation
- negotiated on the global stage
- built corporate accountability models
- trained local organizers who reshaped congressional districts
That is not a career. That is an era.
Rest in Power to the Drum Major of Coalition Politics
Today we don’t just mourn a man.
We honor:
- the campaign that made us organizers
- the movement that made us believe
- the coalition that made Southeast Queens politically visible
Rev. Jesse Jackson taught us that:
We were are more than a voting bloc.
We were a governing force in training.
And for those of us who walked with him in 1984 —
this loss is felt in the heart, not just the headlines.
Rest in Power, Ancestor.
You didn’t just run for President.
You built the political and economic consciousness of a generation.
And in Southeast Queens — we are still walking in the direction you pointed.
Southeast Queens Scoop Legacy Lens
His campaign helped transform a majority-Black district from representation without power into a launching pad for Black congressional leadership.
That is the definition of:
- political community development.
- economic self-determination.
- movement infrastructure.
And that work continues. We could use Rev. Jesse Jackson in times like these.
✊🏾 Keep Hope Alive. Keep Building Power.
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About Detangling From Past Pain
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Throughout Blame It On The Feel Of Pain, the reader grows to understand through a unique interpretation that what we are destined to become grows out of the years we’ve already traveled. Further, our future hinges on how we address the pains of the past. Other expressions focus on how desires in the present are carved out of having a clear vision that old, lingering strongholds must be defeated. A history of suffering is a prerequisite for becoming fed up enough to demand enjoyment now!
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See Max Miller's Other Articles on The Southeast Queens Scoop
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nZinga Austin is also the Co-publisher of Our Black News Scoop and Southeast Queens Scoop. The documentary of about 1/2 hr long is getting rave reviews.
Checkout Nzinga's Spectrum in 3D now Click Here. Please share
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