‘One of America’s greatest patriots’: US political leaders pay tribute to Jesse Jackson

Key Highlights

• Unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our Nation.”Biden added: “I’ve seen how Reverend Jackson has helped lead our Nation forward through tumult and triumph.
• He’s done it with optimism, and a relentless insistence on what is right and just.“Reverend Jackson influenced generations of Americans, and countless elected leaders, including Presidents.
• Reverend Jackson believed in his bones the promise of America: that we are all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.“While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise, he dedicated his life to ensuring we never fully walked away from it either.”Bill Clinton, another Democratic former president, said he and former first lady Hillary Clinton were friends with Jackson for more than five decades, and were “deeply saddened” by his passing.“Reverend Jackson championed human dignity and helped create opportunities for countless people to live better lives,” he said in a statement on X.“[He] never stopped working for a better America with brighter tomorrows, including his historic campaigns for the presidency in 1984 and 1988 in which he championed the concerns of Black, Latino, Asian, and lower income white Americans.“Hillary and I loved him very much.”Al Sharpton, the veteran civil rights campaigner with whom Jackson worked closely after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, called his friend and mentor “a consequential and transformative leader who changed this nation and the world”. In a social media post on Tuesday, Sharpton wrote: “He shaped public policy and changed laws.
• He kept the dream alive and taught young children from broken homes, like me, that we don’t have broken spirits.”Senior Democrats, the party for which Jackson campaigned twice as a presidential candidate, were also quick to pay tribute.“He let us know our voices mattered.
• He instilled in us that we were somebody.