Today we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., who passed away this morning at 84. A protégé of Dr. King — and one of the last people standing with him on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel — Jackson spent six decades turning grief into infrastructure. He founded Operation PUSH and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, ran for president twice (registering over a million new voters and winning 11 primaries in 1988), and personally negotiated the release of American hostages from Syria, Cuba, Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Gambia. In 1999, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From a segregated library sit-in at 18 to reshaping the Democratic Party to fighting apartheid to staring down foreign adversaries — Jackson never waited for permission to lead. Even as Parkinson’s and progressive supranuclear palsy took his body, they never took his voice. Rest in Heaven, Reverend. The dream didn’t die. You made sure of it. Black History is infinity ∞​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​