Rev. Jesse Jackson’s inspiring impact remembered by Erie leaders

Erie community members remember Rev. Jesse Jackson’s charisma, activism, and enduring impact on civil rights and community leadership.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s dedication to fighting injustice and championing diversity, as well as his enormous magnetism, had a profound influence on Charles Mock.

A retired pastor and the associate minister at Erie’s Second Baptist Church, Mock, 74, attended large Baptist conventions with Jackson numerous times over the years in Birmingham, Alabama and other cities.

Jackson’s dedication to ministry and helping others impacted the life path Mock chose.

And Mock was at Second Baptist, 757 E. 26th St., on Oct. 23, 2024, when an ailing Jackson came to Erie just two weeks before the presidential election for a “Your Vote Matters” event.

“I was able to talk with him and gain some wisdom from him over the years,” Mock said. “I think he was one of the most charismatic speakers God has produced.”

Jackson, a protege of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who worked closely with him and witnessed King’s 1968 assassination, died Feb. 17 after a lengthy battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson’s disease.

He was 84.

“He was inspiring. A tremendous follow-up to Dr. King,” Mock said. “He took that mantle and used it wisely in terms of his efforts to expand civil rights for all people.”

Civil rights icon

Mock specifically mentioned Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, calling it a highly effective civil rights platform.

Jackson founded the advocacy organization to build upon the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group founded by King and others in the late 1950s.

According to the coalition’s website, the organization “seeks to empower people through the effective use of grassroots advocacy, issue orientation, and connections between the greater community and the disenfranchised.”

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition has focused on improving economic opportunities for disenfranchised people, pushing for greater minority hiring at various companies; minority job training; establishing inner-city youth/education programs; and, recently, championing diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide.

“That movement really shows the power of diversity,” Mock said.

Erie’s Tyrone Clark not only admired Jackson, he worked directly with him as Jackson, in the 1980s, sought to become President of the United States.

“I was kind of awestruck,” said Clark, 71, the pastor of Christ Temple of Erie and Faith Temple Ministries and a local business consultant.

Jackson made two unsuccessful runs for president. In 1988, Jackson shocked many political watchers with his campaign performance. He garnered nearly 7 million votes during the primary season, winning 11 primaries/caucuses and securing roughly 1,200 delegates.

Clark served as the local director of Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign; four years earlier, in 1984, Clark was a volunteer campaign worker for Jackson’s first presidential run.

As he sought the Democratic nomination in 1988, Jackson held a rally in Perry Square that spring attended by roughly 5,000 people.

“I remember meeting him on the plane at (Erie International) Airport. Before I could get ‘Nice to meet you’ out of my mouth he went running down the aisle, sprinted down the steps off the plane and he immediately started shaking hands with all the people who were there waiting,” Clark said.

“He wanted to meet with and interact with the people,” Clark said. “Later at the rally downtown, he looked at the stage and saw all the dignitaries up there. He said ‘Wait a minute Clark, I don’t see any diverse people or any young people up there. So we got people of all races and more women to join him on stage. I was amazed by the way he connected with people.”

Jackson ‘moved this country’

Gary Horton, 74, is CEO of the Urban Erie Community Development Corporation (UECDC) president of NAACP Erie Branch and a member of the Erie School Board.

Horton said he first met Jackson while attending Cheyney University of Pennsylvania decades ago, and he vividly remembers Jackson’s two high-profile visits to Erie — both of which took place at Second Baptist Church.

Jackson previously visited Second Baptist in October 2000 while stumping for the Democratic presidential ticket of Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman.

“I met Jesse Jackson many times, both here in Erie and at Democratic National Conventions,” Horton said. “He always came to speak to the Pennsylvania delegation and he was always accessible to people.”

“When he came to Erie, of course I was there,” Horton said. “I was 16 when Martin Luther King was killed. Jesse was only 26 then, but he was someone my generation saw as out there on civil rights, like a Muhammad Ali. He was a part of a generation that moved this country. He was one of the people who had an impact on my life.”

Horton’s sister Denise Horton, 75, vividly remembers Jackson serving as commencement speaker when she graduated from Cheyney in December 1975.

Denise Horton would go on to support Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.

“It was standing-room only in there and I remember the thunderous applause for him,” Denise Horton said. “After the commencement I remember him coming to the student union and talking with a bunch of us, giving us advice about going out into the world.

“One thing he said to us in his speech was, ‘Your attitude will determine your aptitude, and your aptitude will determine your altitude.’ That was Dec. 13, 1973. I never forgot that. Jesse Jackson was the man when I was in college.”

‘Our bridge to the civil rights movement’

When Angelica Spraggins learned of Jackson’s death, she quickly thought about both legacy and responsibility.

“Something occurred to me. As a millennial, we are slowly becoming the elders,” said Spraggins, 38, a licensed therapist/clinician in Erie and the co-owner of Journey to a Trauma-Informed Life, which provides mental health counseling, consulting and training.

The clinic serves a diverse population including Erie’s LGBTQ, Black and immigrant communities.

“The Rev. Jesse Jackson was our bridge to the civil rights movement that so many of us have benefitted from and yet so many of us are displaced from,” Spraggins said. “Losing Rev. Jackson is a reminder that the baton is being passed, and it is our duty to pick it up and continue to sprint.

“Regardless of where we are in our journey as Black people in America;” Spraggins said, “(Jackson) would remind us that we still have a fight to be fought.”

Darrell Cook, senior pastor at Erie’s Second Baptist Church and a significant voice in Erie’s social justice movement, also met and was impacted by Jackson.

Cook said Jackson’s life has influenced the way he approaches both ministry and social justice.

“Every Black pastor didn’t agree with his approach. Same with Dr. King,” said Cook, 44, who also met Jackson previously. “But he had consistency in the face of critique and criticism.”

“For me, social justice work is hard work. It can be thankless work. You have to show up,” Cook said. “Rev. Jackson showed up and did so over decades. That encourages me to understand that my work won’t be measured by what I do in a week or a month or a year. I have to be consistent in that same way that he was.”

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