Jesse Jackson, the activist who wanted to be Martin Luther King and paved the way for ObamaLucía Leal

Jesse Jackson did not manage to become the new Martin Luther King Jr. after the assassination of that leader in 1968, but he did pave the way for another politician, Barack Obama, to fulfill decades later his other great dream: to be the first black president of the United States. The Baptist reverend, who passed away this Tuesday at the age of 84, was the most influential African American in the United States in the last third of the 20th century, and his impact transcended the country's borders, especially with his fight against apartheid in South Africa and for the rights of the Palestinians. His two failed presidential campaigns, in the Democratic primaries of 1984 and 1988, made him the first black candidate with a chance of winning a national election in the United States, a legacy that was reflected in his tears of emotion for Obama's victory in 2008. But he was also a controversial figure, marked by an overflowing ego and ambition that aroused suspicion among other civil rights activists, especially the followers of Martin Luther King, whom he considered his mentor since he met him in 1965 during the Selma (Alabama) march. You can also read: "Jesse wanted to be Martin," said Ralph David Abernathy, King's closest collaborator, to The New York Times. A photo from April 1968 shows him smiling, next to King, on the same balcony of the Memphis motel where the legend of the civil rights movement was assassinated the next day: Jackson witnessed the fatal moment and, in the following days, tried to lead the national mourning. Other members of King's inner circle would reproach him for years for his desire for protagonism at that moment: he claimed to have been the last to speak with him, something questioned by other collaborators, and gave an interview with a sweater that -he said- was stained with the blood of the murdered leader.

From Jackson to Obama

Tensions were resolved with Jackson's expulsion from King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), in 1971: that same year, the reverend founded Operation PUSH, a multiracial coalition that would later be called Rainbow PUSH and that sought to expand opportunities for minorities and the poor.

That concept of fighting against racism and for social justice deeply transformed the Democratic Party and later inspired Black Lives Matter. With his 1984 and 1988 campaigns, Jackson accelerated the participation in the Democratic primaries of black voters, who today are the most loyal base of the party, and achieved changes in the voting system that decades later would allow Obama to prevail over the powerful Hillary Clinton. "I was a pioneer, an explorer," Jackson said in a 2020 interview with the British newspaper The Guardian. For that very reason - he assured - it didn't hurt him not to be the one who reached the White House, because three decades later, he proved that it was possible. In the last years of his life, however, the most valued survivor of the civil rights movement in the country was not him, but Congressman John Lewis, who died in 2020. A Controversial Life
Two controversies diminished his shine: in 1984, he was accused of antisemitism for using a pejorative term to refer to Jews, for which he apologized; and in 2001, it came to light that he had had a daughter in an extramarital relationship with a coworker, which forced him to lower his profile. In 1979, he visited South Africa to pressure against apartheid and traveled to the Palestinian territories, where he was photographed embracing Yasser Arafat. Years later, he negotiated the release of American citizens imprisoned in countries such as Serbia or Iraq, in an international facet that he always enjoyed. Born in segregated Greenville (South Carolina) on October 8, 1941, Jackson had a difficult childhood, marked by the rejection of both his father and stepfather, and a youth marked by the beginnings of the civil rights movement, which allowed him to meet King at only 23 years old. One of the five children he had with his wife Jacqueline Brown, Jesse Jr., filled him with pride when he became a Democratic congressman, but also shamed him in 2012, when he was sentenced to prison for diverting campaign money to personal expenses.

And although he did not give a speech as historic as King's "I have a dream", the political history of the U.S. is not understood without the message of 'Keep Hope Alive' that Jackson sang at the 1988 convention, and which continues to inspire Democrats in times of Donald Trump.