It was less than a year since the Eagles had won the franchise’s first ever Lombardi Trophy in August of 2018 when Reverend Jesse Jackson arrived in Philadelphia to visit with the Super Bowl Champion Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins and other Philadelphia players.
Jackson arrived in South Philadelphia and stopped at Eagles Training Camp. He took time to speak and to pray with Malcolm Jenkins, who also was and continues to be a passionate advocate for social justice and criminal justice reform to this day.
Like Martin Luther King, Jr. before him, Reverend Jackson made some significant visits to Philadelphia over the course of his career and not just to see the World Champion Eagles in 2018, but also to make an impact. Unlike Dr. King, Reverend Jackson did not spend an important part of his youth in Philadelphia. But Rev. Jackson certainly had a true appreciation for the significance of the City.
In 1974, Reverend Jackson even visited Philadelphia’s City Hall as part of Operation People United to Serve Humanity, which he had founded. The moment was captured by photographer Jack T. Franklin and is in the archive of the African American Museum of Philadelphia.
Rev. Jackson passed away this week at the age of 84, surrounded by family. In a career that spanned nearly seven decades, Jackson was a leader in the field of civil rights — both at home and also abroad. He was also a two-time US Presidential candidate, garnering over 18% of the vote and placing second in the Democratic Primary in 1984. He then received just under 30 percent of the vote and placed second only to eventual Democratic Nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988.
In April of 1984 and then again in 1988, Jackson made campaign stops in Philadelphia and was publicly endorsed by the Black Elected Officials of Philadelphia in 1984. His speeches — including a 1984 luncheon at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and one at the Mount Airy Church of Christ in the same year — captivated audiences in the city.
When the fight for social justice needed him in 2011, he was back in Philadelphia once again. When Red Cross workers picketed a line for labor solidarity that year, Jackson was among them. He also joined Occupy Philadelphia protestors outside of City Hall during that same year.
The same year as visiting the World Champion Eagles in 2018, Reverend Jackson spoke during the Fifty-Seventh Annual Progressive National Baptist Convention at the Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, founded in 1911. Jackson spoke at the Church just as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had during the ground-breaking ceremony for a new $1.2 million youth center and Church back in 1963.
