Tributes are pouring in from across the globe for Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday. The civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate was 84 years old. Democracy Now!’s Juan González recounts his experience as a reporter visiting Cuba and Puerto Rico alongside Jackson. “Jesse was always there when people were fighting for some form of social justice,” says González. “Of all the U.S. leaders of the past half-century, I believe none had a more international view and a commitment to worldwide social justice as Jesse Jackson did.”
Bishop William Barber, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, met Jackson 40 years ago as a student when he asked to work with Jackson’s student campaign during his 1984 presidential run. Jackson “was somebody that was serious about people uniting to save humanity — PUSHing — that he was serious about an agenda of uplift,” says Barber.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.