Urban League of Rochester's president on Jesse Jackson's legacy

A Letter in honor of Jesse Jackson's legacy

Dear Reverend Jackson,

I write to you with a heart full of gratitude. This letter carries the warmth, admiration and deep respect of someone who knows what it means to be shaped by your leadership. There are leaders whose voices echo for a moment. There are leaders whose voices echo for a generation. Your voice has carried far beyond a single era. It has carried through time. It carries through communities. It carries through to people who may never meet you, but who have been changed by the path you helped create. You helped us see ourselves differently. You helped this nation see us more clearly. You reminded us that hope is something we practice, not something we simply feel.

As a young child who could not yet understand the full weight of the politics of 1988, I recognized something powerful in your voice. The conviction in your tone. The purpose in your presence. The rhythm of your call. Your message reached beyond the grown-ups in the room and settled into the spirit of a child who sensed that something meaningful was unfolding. Your words planted seeds long before I knew they were taking root.

Your 1988 Democratic National Convention speech was a defining moment for many of us, yet it was only one chapter in your long journey of service. Your presidential campaigns, your international diplomacy, your work freeing hostages abroad, your push for economic inclusion and your constant presence in communities fighting for justice strengthened our belief that progress was possible. You carried the movement into boardrooms, neighborhoods, sanctuaries and nations. You showed us that our voices belonged everywhere decisions were made. You told us that if our minds could conceive it and if our hearts could believe it, then we could achieve it. Those words did not belong only to a campaign. They belonged to every person who needed a reminder that their dreams were possible. Your example on that stage taught us that leadership is not defined by position, but by purpose.

Keep Hope Alive was never a slogan to you. It is a calling. It is something you lived. It became a cultural anchor. Children repeated it at school assemblies. Parents spoke it in moments of uncertainty. Leaders echoed it in their speeches. Communities held on to it during difficult times. Even those who did not understand the full complexity of your work understood the rhythm and the truth in that call. The sound of your voice repeating Keep Hope Alive still rings deeply in our spirit. Your cadence carried strength. Your words carried reassurance. The memory of that refrain carries power even today.

Your service did not pause after those campaigns. You built the Rainbow Coalition and strengthened PUSH into powerful engines of civic and economic influence. You traveled across the world to confront injustice and to bring Americans home from captivity. You stepped into places where our communities lacked representation and insisted that our voices belonged at every table. You answered the call again and again, not out of obligation, but out of a profound love for people. Through it all, the phrase that followed you from town halls to living rooms stayed the same. Keep hope alive.

You showed us that hope is an action. Hope requires movement. Hope asks something of us. Hope includes motion. We see hope in motion today.

Your teachings on youth, service and investment have guided us for decades. You reminded the world that today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and that our dreams must be stronger than our memories. Those lessons continue to move through communities where people rise each day determined to improve the lives of others. Your call to let dreams pull us forward still rings true.

Your influence also helped lift women who were once pushed to the margins of the movement. You taught us to pay attention to the voices that history tried to quiet. You helped us understand the strength of women like Fannie Lou Hamer, who stood firm even when the world refused to stand with her. That spirit lives on today in women who are shaping the direction of this country. You taught a generation that women are not only part of the movement. Women keep the movement alive. That truth is visible now across this country. Syracuse will soon be led by its first Black mayor, Sharon Owens. Albany, the capital of New York State, has elected its first Black mayor, Dorcey Applyrs. Detroit has chosen Mary Sheffield as the city’s first woman and first Black woman mayor. Kansas City, Kansas, placed its trust in Christal Watson as the first Black woman to lead the Unified Government. Media, Pennsylvania, elected Joi Washington as its first woman and first Black woman mayor in a community where such a moment once seemed beyond reach.

Their victories are not just firsts. They are proof that the courage you lifted in women long ago is now carrying a generation forward. Their presence in these offices is a reminder that this work is not fading. It is growing. It is strengthening. It is deepening. It is reaching further than anyone once believed possible.

Across cities and small towns, Black women and men are serving on school boards, city councils and state legislatures. Their leadership is strengthened by everyday citizens who organize, vote, mentor and build. Their success is held up by elders who carried the struggle and by young people who are just beginning to understand the road ahead. In Rochester and across the nation, leaders are shaping what communities can become, guided by the values you worked tirelessly to uphold.

This is the landscape you dreamed of. This is the promise you spoke into motion. This is the legacy you helped create through action and conviction.

This letter is a moment to honor your legacy. It is also a moment to let you know that we are stepping forward with confidence because of what you taught us. Your leadership set a standard that guides our steps. Your vision shaped our understanding of responsibility. Your courage prepared us for the work still unfinished. You showed us how to enter difficult spaces with dignity and purpose. You showed us how to fight for justice with discipline and conviction. You demonstrated what it means to love our people through service.

I want you to feel the depth of our gratitude. The future leaders rising now do so on a foundation you helped build. The lessons you shared live within our actions, our commitments and our determination to move forward with hope. You shaped our direction. You poured yourself into the work. You offered us a clear and powerful blueprint for how to serve, how to lead and how to believe in what is possible.

This time in America is challenging, yet we remain steady. Hope requires us to believe in tomorrow night and beyond, even when today feels heavy. The lessons you taught us keep us grounded. The hope you carried still guides us. The dream you lifted continues to shape our purpose. The movement continues because leaders across this country, elected and unelected, step forward each day determined to keep the work alive. We remain steady in our purpose. We remain clear in our calling. We remain grounded in the hope you protected. You can trust that the dream you called us to pursue will remain alive in our hands.

Thank you for giving your voice to a world that needed clarity and courage.
Thank you for reminding us that progress grows when people believe in one another, and we win when we stand together, move together and keep hope alive together. Your example still steadies us. Your words still shape us. Your legacy still moves us forward.

Hope is alive.

Carrying the charge you placed in our hands,

Dr. Seanelle Hawkins
President and CEO
Urban League of Rochester