By: Vincent L. Hall
I may be poor, but I am Somebody. I may be young, but I am Somebody. I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody.
I may be small. I may have made mistakes. My clothes are different. My face is different. My hair is different, but I am Somebody.
Sudden death takes its own prisoners, but the elongated sickness of someone you love, coupled with the reality that we all are mortal, is equally difficult. The moment I got word of the word I knew would soon come, my heart sank.
The word came via text message at 1:43 a.m. Jesse Louis Jackson, the hero I met back in 84’, died at age 84. His death marks the end of an era in Black history and especially in Black pride.
We were introduced to the young, brash, afro-wearing, leather-coat-sporting, overly handsome gentleman during the MLK days. My grandmother always said he was shining, rhyming, and “High siding!” Jesse had the gift of gab, but he didn’t just talk about garbage.
Jesse Jackson was there in 1968 alongside the Drum Major for Justice when they joined the sanitation workers.
Dr. King and the SCLC went to Memphis to defend labor rights and demand civil rights during the “Poor People’s Campaign.”
Jesse Jackson provided the spoken word that became stereophonic when coupled with the word in song! While Jackson was reciting “I Am Somebody,” James Brown was matching his energy through his 1968 hit song, “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!
Parenthetically, you should know that for Negroes to declare and recite that they were somebody in 1968 openly was beyond belief. Jesse Jackson was performing that miracle while “The Godfather of Soul” was tackling another major hurdle in the Black psyche.
James Brown gave colored folks all over America something that can never be repaid. James Brown took us from Colored and Negro to Black. And if that wasn’t enough, he made us proud to be Black.
“Say it Loud, I’m Black, and I’m Proud” changed America. You may be too young or too Afro-centric to remember, but your “mama n’em” can recall when being called black could get you severely beaten. It was as bad as the N-Word is today. But James moved Black from a pejorative to a privilege.
Jesse Jackson’s “Somebody” added to James Brown’s “Black and Proud” created a synergy of self-love and respect for our own that made us special in our own eyes, regardless of what those with “Blue eyes” think of us.
John Wiley Price and DG, aka “Miss Community, introduced me to a man whose life and charisma were bigger than anything in my experience. We ran that campaign like we had a real chance to win, and we did… in 2008! You’ll catch that after breakfast on Saturday morning.
It wasn’t just me. Jesse Jackson inspired millions of people of all races and religions. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson appeared together in Dallas, Texas, in the summer of 1992. The scene was set at the MLK Recreation Center in Sunny South Dallas. I will never forget it.
Jackson and Clinton stood side by side. They looked like two bookends, around six feet three inches tall, with similar builds and statures. Both brothers made the ladies swoon, regardless of race. They both possessed the It factor.
But Jesse had to one-up the future president. He turned to the basketball goal above his head, jumped to the hoop, did a pull-up, and smiled as his feet landed on the court. He was a proud somebody, and so were we.
“I am Black, Brown, or white. I speak a different language, but I must be respected, protected, never rejected. I am God’s child!”
That Jesse Jackson was a proud Black Somebody! Got it. Will review this week’s draft.
