Tribute honours legacy of Rev Jesse Jackson and his solidarity with South Africa

The Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted a memorial tribute for Reverend Jesse Jackson reflecting on the civil rights leader’s role in global struggles for justice and his long-standing solidarity with South Africa’s liberation movement.

Jackson died on 17 February in Chicago at the age of 85. On Friday Ramaphosa arrived in Chicago and will attend the funeral, a private homecoming celebration, of Jackson.

Jackson was awarded South Africa’s National Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Silver in 2013.

Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO Mbongiseni Buthelezi said the current global climate made Jackson’s legacy particularly relevant.

He noted ongoing international conflicts, saying 1 332 people had reportedly been killed in the US-Israel war with Iran and more than 120 in Lebanon since last week.

“It is in such moments that the life and work of Reverend Jackson reminds of the enduring courage of solidarity, of hope,” he said.

Buthelezi traced Jackson’s life from his upbringing under the Jim Crow segregation laws in the United States, which forced Black Americans to the back of buses and denied them basic rights.

Jackson later joined the civil rights movement and became a prominent figure in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which he joined in 1964 alongside Martin Luther King Jr. He was ordained as a minister in 1968.

“Reverand Jackson was a towering figure in the global struggle for civil rights and a steadfast supporter of South Africa’s liberation movement. His relationship with Nelson Mandela reflected the deep connections between the struggle for civil rights in the United States and the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa,” Buthelezi said.

Jackson rose through the SCLC to run its economic arm in Chicago before becoming its national director. He became a protégé of King and in 1966 was appointed to lead Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, an initiative aimed at improving the economic conditions of African Americans.

He was also present in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968.

In 1984 Jackson launched the Rainbow Coalition and ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, repeating the bid in 1988.

Nelson Mandela Foundation board chairperson Naledi Pandor said Jackson’s life represented an unwavering commitment to justice.

She noted that the foundation was implementing a three-year programme under the theme Rolihlahla: making good trouble.

“The Nelson Mandela Foundation is currently implementing a three year strategic programme under the theme, Rolihlahla: making good trouble,” she said.

“We recognise that the globe is confronted by deeply complex and dangerous circumstances which will require men, women, and youth who will make good trouble as Nelson Mandela once called for,” she said.

Pandor said Mandela believed activism required courage and action. She said the US civil rights movement had played an important role in mobilising international opposition to apartheid.

“They joined our struggle through mounting protests that challenged and profiled legalised racial segregation and discrimination and highlighted in particular the two countries in the world that had the worst manifestation of white supremacy oppression,” she said.

Pandor said Jackson had also been active in supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

“And he granted me time with him and spoke very fondly of Mr Mandela who he loved a great deal, but most particularly of South Africa which he regarded as a beacon of constitutional freedoms and which he hoped would be the country which would show the world what respect to for human dignity and basic human freedom means,” she said.

She added that Jackson viewed South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice as justified.

She said he regarded the action as “an extremely appropriate action by a country committed to international solidarity, international law and freedom of all peoples”.

Former ambassador to France and Unesco Barbara Masekela described Jackson as a committed educator who sought to uplift communities.

“Jesse Jackson was admired by his ability to be at the right place at the right time. So it was not surprising that he was one of the first of our brethren from the United States of America to arrive in South Africa when the old man was released from jail,” she said.

She said Jackson embodied a Pan-African tradition linking people of colour who had experienced racism and colonialism.

“So solidarity is a legacy which we have inherited and which we must continue to strengthen and build, not only for ourselves but for generations to come,” she said.

ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane said the tribute showed South Africa’s stance was not anti-American but opposed to injustice and violations of sovereign rights.

She said President Cyril Ramaphosa had travelled on a commercial flight to attend Jackson’s funeral as a gesture of friendship. 

“We want to celebrate the life of a fighter, who never stayed silent when people were hurting. 

A fighter who walked with comrade Nelson Mandela, who drew fire from Reverend Martin Luther King, who carried the spirit of Oliver Tambo and Rosa Parks,” she said.

Mokonyane noted that Jackson’s death coincided with the 50th commemoration of the 1976 youth uprising, which had sparked international solidarity with South Africa’s struggle.

“We should make this call today, United in our diversity, from the bottom of our hearts, that as the world celebrates the life and time of Reverend Jesse Jackson, his spirit must live amongst us,” she said.

Nelson Mandela Foundation board trustee Alice Brown said Jackson’s two presidential campaigns helped open the door for the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president.

“It was actually Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the US Congress who in 1972 became the first African American woman to seek the nomination for the US presidency from one of the two major political parties,” she said.

“But it was Reverend Jackson’s bold entry into the Democratic party presidential campaign in 1984 and then again in 1988 that were the first viable attempts by an African American to ascend to that position,” she said.

Brown said Jackson broadened the scope of US presidential campaigns by foregrounding issues of jobs, peace and justice. She added that he was among the first major presidential candidates to call for the self-determination of the Palestinian people.