(Photo by Mark Junge/Getty Images) By Tevon Blair ·Updated March 10, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

When I learned of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s passing, it was the morning of my very first keynote presentation in Charlotte, North Carolina where I discussed the century-long relationship between civic engagement and student leadership at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). I knew it was important to name the many leaders who made transitions from elected leadership roles on campus to shaping national politics. 

One of the leaders I recognized was Jackson. 

What many people may not know is that twenty-five years before he launched his historic 1988 presidential campaign and delivered the “Keep Hope Alive” speech, he was elected as president of the student government association at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T).

He also shares this beginning story with Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Phillip Agnew, co-founder of Black Men Build and Dream Defenders, and Stacey Abrams, the Spelman alumna who made history as the first African American woman to secure a major party’s nomination for governor. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s legacy didn’t begin on the national stage. His journey from student government leader at NC A&T to civil rights icon reflects the enduring power of HBCU leadership. (Photo by jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma via Getty Images)

In 1960, just three years before he was elected to the highest-level position to represent his campus, students at his institution and Bennett College, led several protests and a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. The passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Acts and 1965 Voting Rights Act also came shortly after he graduated from NC A&T. I’d go even further to say that Jackson’s early involvement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., landing him a job with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was a direct result of his political role as an HBCU SGA president. 

His HBCU student leadership experience helped to build a foundation for the prominent civil rights leader we honor today. This foundation is one that contributes to generations of Black students being informed and engaged citizens in their communities. His children followed behind him as leaders in politics and also became graduates of NC A&T. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s leadership journey began at NC A&T, where he served as student government president. (Photo by Owen Franken/Corbis via Getty Images)

This one particular part of his story helped me to understand how a man who was never elected to public office at any level of government had so much political representation at his homegoing services. Although unheard of, his passing brought together three of the five living former United States presidents, a former vice president, sitting governors, mayors, congressional members and global leaders in one room to honor his legacy. 

The remarks from political leaders shared at his service reminded me of the legacy of leadership that Jackson leaves behind and the generations of future leaders who continue to be inspired because of him. 

Jackson spent six decades of his life committed to the advancement of African Americans and communities across the world, influencing politics and inspiring generations of people – his funeral was bound to be political. 

His 1972 appearance on Sesame Street, reciting the poem “I am – Somebody,” makes me think of what a Black man raised in the segregated South who enrolled in college as a first generation student may have experienced before he believed he was somebody. 

Growing up in Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, I lived minutes away from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition building. While I always knew the organization was founded by Jackson, it wasn’t until these past two weeks that I fully understood the significance of this building, his legacy and its connection to my own >Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Even though 56 years had passed since NC A&T and Bennett students sparked protests across the South, the role of SGA president was still just as political for me. It was the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana that shaped my approach to student leadership and understanding how my generation of students engaged in local and state politics. 

Now 10 years after that experience, I lead the nonpartisan Vote HBCU program at Xceleader, a nonprofit organization I co-founded with two other HBCU SGA presidents. Since 2020, we’ve registered more than 4,200 HBCU students to vote, educating and training these students to show up as active and informed citizens in their college communities. 

History continues to show us that HBCUs are centers for Black leadership and political movements. Dr. Jelani Favors, another N.C. A&T alum and author of Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism, documents the unique experiences of many HBCU students and alumni who shaped social and political movements since the beginning of our institutions. 

I am intentional about Black students going to HBCUs because these experiences hold a deep impact on our lives. To put it in perspective, almost every civil rights leader we celebrate today is a graduate of an HBCU or has some level of HBCU student leadership experience. Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, Stokely Carmichael, Patricia Stephens Due, John Lewis, Mary McLeod Bethune and many others all share this experience. 

Holding an elected public position is not what made their legacy remarkable, it was the experiences they gained from HBCUs.

The beginning stories of Jackson and those previously named are not too far from our own, making their impact seem a bit more attainable. Now, more than 60 years later, a new generation of leaders are needed as the issues that Jackson and other civil rights leaders dedicated their lives to are being overturned, dismantled and under attack. 

In the realest way possible, we’re Black, therefore politics will always find its way in our lives, even in our final celebration of life. 

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