Consider This from NPR
With the fight to preserve voting rights, Jesse Jackson's message still resonates
22 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What was Jesse Jackson's impact on American politics?
My fellow Americans, it is my honor to introduce the next president of the United States of America, the Reverend Jesse Lewis Jackson.
In 1984, Reverend Jesse Jackson took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. It was his first presidential campaign, and his speech was an urgent call to action. We are now the perfect people.
Yet we are called to a perfect mission, our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race. Jackson's rousing remarks called upon voters to be a part of a rainbow coalition. of disenfranchised Americans and people of color.
My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised. They are restless and seek relief. They have voted in record numbers. They have invested the faith, hope, and trust that they have in us.
Well, let me just tell you that as a young kid growing up in public housing down in Savannah, Georgia, Jesse Jackson captured my imagination.
Jackson's message resonated with a young Raphael Warnock, now a Democratic senator from Georgia and the first Black senator in the state's history. While Jackson didn't win the nomination in 1984, nor during his second presidential run in 1988, his campaigns reshaped Democratic politics.
I witnessed him call America to live up to its ideals. Watching him do that in real time inspired me. When he said, I am somebody, I believed him.
Jackson died last week at the age of 84, but he leaves a lasting legacy. Consider this. As Congress debates voter ID laws and the Supreme Court reconsiders provisions of the Voting Rights Act, where does the movement Jackson helped build go from here? From NPR, I'm Emily Kwong. Let's consider this from NPR.
To better understand the legacy of Jesse Jackson and the movement he leaves behind, we called Senator Raphael Warnock. I spoke with Senator Warnock about how Jackson's message still resonates. When was the first time you heard him speak?
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