{"id":15715,"date":"2026-02-17T15:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=15715"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:11:01","slug":"umes-remembers-rev-jesse-jackson-sr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/umes-remembers-rev-jesse-jackson-sr\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES remembers Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. (center) poses with University of Maryland Eastern Shore Chancellor William P. Hytche (left) during a campaign stop at UMES in 1984. Jackson, the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, died Feb. 17 at the age of 84.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore remembers civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson<\/strong> Sr., who died Feb. 17 at the age of 84.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson, the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, was one of the latter 20th<\/sup> century\u2019s most well-known figures in the Civil Rights movement following the 1968 assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRev. Jackson was a person who was brave enough to broach the idea that black and white working-class people shared something in common,\u201d said Dr. Kathryn Barrett-Gaines<\/strong>, professor of history in UMES\u2019 School of Education, Social Sciences, and the Arts. \u201cHe was appealing to people based on class instead of race, which was new at the time. He knew that class united us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the message Jackson emphasized during his runs for President of the United States in both 1984 and 1988, with the former bringing him to the UMES campus for a campaign stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person who was present that day in 1984 when he addressed the campus community at the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts was Sharon Brooks<\/strong>, now the acting director of library services at UMES\u2019 Frederick Douglass Library.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. addresses the campus during a 2015 visit to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a high-energy moment for the campus, community, and the town of Princess Anne,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cHe was one of the trailblazers in civil rights. There were lots of people before him, but because of the increased media exposure, he was in an era where we could actually see and hear more of what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Arlisha Norwood<\/strong>, UMES assistant professor of history, also remembers Jackson\u2019s presidential campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHis iconic campaign slogan, \u2018Keep Hope Alive,\u2019<\/em> resonated deeply with communities that had long been excluded from the political process,\u201d Norwood said. \u201cJackson saw and affirmed the power in everyone, insisting that democracy must reflect the voices of all its people, no matter their background, race, economic status, or age.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson would make a second visit to Princess Anne in the fall of 2015, when he was the keynote speaker during the campus\u2019 Summer Commencement and Founders\u2019 Day ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that event, Jackson was awarded a presidential medallion in recognition of respect for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrett-Gaines said Jackson being a historical trailblazer played a pivotal role in future presidential runs for Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout people like Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm running for president, there wouldn\u2019t have been a Barack Obama,\u201d she said. \u201cRev. Jackson was brave enough to run for president as a black man in the 80s during the Reagan Era and committed enough to be a consistent voice for those lacking resources. He\u2019s a real and strong fiber in the fabric of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Norwood: \u201cHis legacy reminds us that progress is not only about the dream one inherits, but also about the dream one strives to create. It is my hope that our students remember Jackson\u2019s legacy as they nurture and accomplish their own dreams at UMES and beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore remembers civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., who died Feb. 17 at the age of 84. Jackson, the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, was one of the latter 20th century\u2019s most well-known figures in the Civil Rights movement following the 1968…Read more UMES remembers Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":15717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-15715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15715"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=15715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}