RIP, Reverend Jesse Jackson ...

One of the very last MLK-era civil rights leaders has left us, Reverend Jesse Jackson ... 😢

In fact, he was literally standing next to Martin Luther King Jr when he was assassinated ...

After MLK's death, Reverend Jackson never stopped pointing out the same inequities that still exist and are on the forefront of American politics today.

These men are irreplaceable - their particular form of civil disobedience moved the needle on civil rights, and IMO, when it comes to protests, we should take a page from their playbook and do more silent sit-ins and singing marches, it'd be harder for this administration to villainize and victim-blame that way. (And IMO, dance protests as an updated form, which I've said before).

He made a few mistakes along the way, which he openly regretted, apologized, and made amends for - but there was no better orator for civil rights except MLK himself.

"America is not like a blanket—one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt."

 ~ from his famous "Rainbow Coalition Speech" at the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

Those words are just as impactful and true now as they were then, even more important in our current political environment.

RIP, Reverend - you've earned it.  We will miss you 😢