On the passing of Jesse Jackson

You couldn’t have lived through the 1970’s and 1980’s without hearing of Jesse Jackson, the larger than life civil rights campaigner from the USA.

I have two distinct memories of him. The first being from the excellent Wattstax concert in Los Angeles of 1972 and second of seeing him at Liverpool University’s Mountford Hall in December 2008.

Being an avid Isaac Hayes fan I have a CD of his performance at Wattsax where Jesse Jackson was the MC introducing Hayes and getting the packed crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum hyped up. The day-long concert featured virtually every artist signed up to Stax, and it was a positive reaction to the civil rights riots of 7 years prior in the Watts community. You could call it a black Woodstock. Of course, Stax also realised it would be a great showcase for those on its books, so good business as well as good social perspective.

Here’s a link to YouTube where Jesse Jackson winds up the crowd and the entrance of Hayes to the Coliseum stage:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiO3Bg2Dw6M&list=RDWiO3Bg2Dw6M&start_radio=1

Many years later, during my time as Leader of Sefton Council, I received an invitation to see Jackson in Liverpool. As it was Capital of Culture year for Liverpool it was probably why he was visiting. I still have my ticket and here it is:-

 

My recollection is that Jackson made a great characteristic speech and it was a privilege to be there listening. What I also recall though was his entourage of quite a number of formidable gentlemen, with whom you would not mess, who were clearly there to keep him safe.

So one of the most prominent civil rights campaigners has passed on and in his case I’m quite sure we’ll never see his like again. RIP Jesse Jackson.