My Brush with Jesse Jackson

Commentary By Devan Wade for KTSU Sports

With the news of civil rights icon and humanitarian, Jesse Jackson passing on Tuesday, a wave of sadness washed over me.  Reflections of iconic moments that have become clips on YouTube and passages in history books rushed to the forefront of my thoughts.  An immense sense of loss swelled in me at the thought of losing one of the last of a dwindling generation of civil rights warriors. In contrast to that feeling of grief was a sense of pride knowing I had my very own brush with living Black history, when I interviewed Jesse Jackson.   

                  Jesse Jackson was no stranger to Texas Southern University, or KTSU for that matter.  There was 1986, the Charter Day celebration, where he was a featured speaker.  There were visits to the campus, alongside other leaders like Congressman Mickey Leland.  There were many visits to TSU in connection with speeches on civil rights, voting rights, and economic justice as part of his Houston public engagements. These visits often coincided with civil rights events, campus convocations, or community programs that included TSU students and faculty.  As recently as 2017, Jackson was a guest of KTSU’s Real World Real Talk.  Despite that appearance and all his visits to campus, I was never around. I never had a Jesse Jackson interview on my bingo card. That is, until serendipity stepped in.  

                  In 2023, I vigorously lobbied KTSU General Manager, Ernest Walker to give myself and my counterpart, Kevin Allen the opportunity to do something big for the NCAA Final Four Weekend in Houston.  I wanted to do a remote edition of KTSU Sports Talk that featured guests in front of a live audience.  Not only did he agree, he and the KTSU team elevated it to a grand event at the world renowned, Breakfast Klub restaurant.

                  There was a huge crowd and a list of VIPS that enhanced the show with their presence.  TSU Head Coach Johnny Jones provided expert basketball analysis, and all was going well.  The day was already a huge success when murmurs emerged from restaurant patrons that Jesse Jackson was in the building.

                  How does it feel to actually meet someone that has been a part of the landscape of the world around you since you were born?  For me, a myriad of emotions hit all at once. 

The first feeling that arose in me was reverence. Instant reflections of his impactful moments on my life, flashed through my mind.  I thought of the pride that swelled in my father, watching Jackson’s 1984 speech at the Democratic National Convention. The gravity of how he came closer than any Black man in history to being the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States of America was profound.  I remembered seeing pictures in history books of Jackson only a few feet away from Martin Luther King Jr. moments before an assassin’s bullet ended King’s life.  I remembered crying tears of pride and joy alongside images of Jackson doing the same on November 4, 2008, when the television cameras panned to him that night in Grant Park as Barak Obama gave his presidential victory speech.  I knew with the images of tears rolling down his face that Obama’s victory meant something different to him and thousands of others who literally risked their lives praying for that very moment in American history.  

 Those mental images were rapidly replaced by thoughts of my late parents who would have been so excited to know that their son had the opportunity to be in the presence of a symbol of the fight for equality and humanity.  Finally, the journalist and talk show host in me kicked in as I tried to persuade any living being within ten feet of me to please bring Mr. Jackson over for the briefest of interviews during the live broadcast.

                  After a bit of wrangling and negotiating by Mr. Walker and others, I was given the parameters of the conversation.  “Two questions and TWO QUESTIONS ONLY.” 

                  To have this opportunity to talk to Jesse Jackson was on top of the list of serendipitous things that have happened in my life and career. A pivotal and life changing brush with destiny.  This living, historical figure was talking to me.  He was answering my questions.  He was expounding in ways that flooded my abilities to fully contextualize the firsthand history he was explaining because he was there, and he was involved.  

 I cannot tell you word-for-word what he said because I was in such awe.  The gravity of his rich, authentic and historic life came through with every word, even though his voice was diminished by Parkinson’s disease. I leaned in and listened closely as this voice was far from the thunderous one he had when he mesmerized the country at the1984 DNC.

                  Though I asked only two questions that day, his answers were voluminous, as he still had so much to say and so much teaching left to do.  After he was finally pulled away by his team, he smiled, shook hands, took pictures and I suspect, basked in the happiness of being loved and acknowledged by his people…all people.  That was my brush with Black history, my brush with Jesse Jackson.    May his legacy live on forever!