United States Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist, Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday, at 84, according to the family.
Below are top quotes associated with Jesse Jackson, a gifted orator famed for his unrelenting fight for justice for the Black race.
We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up.
I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn’t born in me.
Your children need your presence more than your presents.
Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.
If you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you need to know who holds tomorrow!
Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.
A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer.
If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.
We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.
I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.
In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don’t have a plan for reconstruction at home.
If a black doctor discovers a cure for cancer, ain’t no hospital going to lock him out.
In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
We have to judge politicians by their cumulative score. In one innings they make a great catch, in another they drop the ball. In one they score a home run, in another they strike out. But it is their cumulative batting average that we are interested in.
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters.
We must all learn a good lesson – how to live together. That is the new challenge of the new world… learning to co-exist and not co-annihilate.
What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.
I came to the conclusion that in order to end racial barriers, I needed to run for the office of the president and put forth an agenda of social justice and world peace. In addition, I concluded that someone needed to run and challenge the liberal orthodoxy.
When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.
We reveal our joys and successes, we conceal our pain.
You can be out of slavery and have the right to vote, but unless you have access to capital, industry and technology, you can’t fulfill your dreams.
