Santita Jackson, daughter of Rev. Jesse Jackson, says her father was always a champion of people
By Adam Harrington, Audrina Sinclair
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — Santita Jackson, the daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said Tuesday that she hoped people would remember her father as their “champion.”
Jackson died Tuesday morning at the age of 84.
“As a father, he was always present, and I couldn’t ask for any more than that. That was the presence of his life was his presence in my life and in the life of my siblings,” said Santita Jackson. “But I hope that people will remember him as their champion, as someone who when he fell down, he got up, because he said the ground was no place for a champion.”
Jackson first moved to Chicago on a Rockefeller grant to study at Chicago Theological Seminary, and was ordained as a minister in 1968.
“He took that calling very seriously, and our mother did. They were in ministry together,” said Santita Jackson, “and it’s been heartwarming to have felt the love for the people, to have seen the tributes.”
Santita Jackson also emphasized that her father was always looking to lift people up. She pointed to his campaign for president in the 1984 Democratic primary, when he became the first African American to launch a nationwide presidential bid.
“In his 1983 speech, November 3, 1983, when he announced his run for the presidency, he said, ‘When I win, you will,'” said Santita Jackson.
Santita Jackson noted that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was the only candidate in that Democratic primary to pledge to put a woman on the ticket with him if he won.
Quoted by Dartmouth Libraries, the Rev. Jackson said during a Democratic primary debate on Jan. 15, 1984: “[T]here is the need to involve the persons who in the past have been denied in the ways of justice within our society. Women are 53% of this nation. Seventy percent of all poor children live in a house headed by a woman. Our [Democratic National] Convention in San Francisco will be 50% female. So there’s a basis for having equity. We now have women in Congress and the Senate, on the Supreme Court. Lastly, if indeed Mrs. Indira Gandhi can run India, a nation of 600 million people, if Golda Meir could run Israel in the time of war, if Mrs. Thatcher can run Britain, a woman can run this country.”
When Walter Mondale eventually won the Democratic primary that year, he put a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, on the ticket as his running mate for vice president. Santita Jackson gave her father credit for Mondale’s move.
Mondale lost to President Ronald Reagan, who won a second term in November 1984. But Santita Jackson also gave her father credit for “laying the groundwork” for later successful Democratic presidential candidates, including President Bill Clinton in 1992 and President Barack Obama — who of course also had a Chicago background — in 2008.
“He was making a philosophical change, making space for a Bernie Sanders, for progressive politics,” said Santita Jackson. “It was, everyone is in, and nobody is out.”
Santita Jackson also highlighted her father’s oratory and his community efforts, such as the youngsters mentored by the PUSH Excel Oratorical Society.
“I hope that the power of his words will live on, and the power of service,” she said. “You know, Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] said that everyone can’t be famous, but everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”
Santita Jackson said her father and his institution took on all kinds of service beyond what the general public knows about.
“Having been in a food line himself, we have been giving away food throughout the holidays for more than 60 years, because he understands,” said Santita Jackson.
Santita Jackson said her father always communicated to everyone that he believed in them, and worked to ensure that everyone he encountered and helped could be somebody with a voice.
“As Reverend Jackson would say, ‘My mind’s a pearl. I can learn anything in the world.’ And he meant that. And ‘up with hope, down with nope,’ and he lived all of that, and as he said, ‘I am a public servant,’ and he lived to serve the public, the people,” said Santita Jackson, “and he was a man of the people. He was never part of the elite.”
Santita Jackson referenced her father’s speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.
“My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised,” Rev. Jackson said at the convention. “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. The Democratic Party must send them a signal that we care. I pledge my best not to let them down.”
Santita Jackson said she hoped her father would be remembered for loving and standing up for people until the end.
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