Presidential Candidate Jesse Jackson campaign, Ohio, April 17, 1984. (Photo by Robert R. McElroy/Getty Images) By Andrea Bossi ·Updated February 17, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Reverend Jesse Jackson was more than just a towering civil rights leader.

He — who passed away Tuesday at the age of 84 in Chicago — spent his life dedicated to championing civil rights, including racial and economic equality; ran for president twice; negotiated international hostage situations; and ran successful campaigns in corporate America. To this day, what he preached and taught us is timeless.

Rev. Jackson was a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and he began working for King in 1965 and, a year later, led King’s economic justice campaign Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. Years after the civil rights icon was assassinated in 1968, Jackson launched Operation PUSH in the early 1970s, extending the essence of the economic justice campaigns he worked on with King. To the end, Jackson stood alongside today’s civil rights leaders, even as he fought his illness, fighting for police reform, voting rights, fair housing, and more. 

Throughout his life, Rev. Jackson was a vessel for endless lessons about the struggle for equality and keeping hope alive. He taught us much about building wealth and economic mobility, spanning from the importance of supporting Black financial institutions to why it’s key not to buy from where you cannot work. Read on for five significant lessons. 

The Power of Boycotts

Boycotting has a profound legacy in the civil rights movement of being a powerful tool to advance economic equality. Jackson led Operation Breadbasket in Chicago — a few years after MLK-led Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched Operation Breadbasket in Atlanta — and boycotted business in the dairy industry who either swiftly added jobs for Black workers or complied after the selective spending hit their balance books.

Boycotting works, and it can help build communal wealth and economic mobility for individuals, as it makes companies who are actively and intentionally disinvesting in Black communities change their behavior. We saw this most recently with Target boycotts, which started in 2025 and led the retailer to lose billions of dollars in market value. At a time when Black unemployment is on the rise, it’s important to remember what Breadbasket taught through the SCLC and Rev. Jackson. As King once said, there’s no reason to “patronize a business which denies [Black people] jobs, or advancement [or] plain courtesy.”

Civil Rights Are Inseparable From Economics

Jackson was a staunch advocate for civil rights, and made it clear throughout his career that economic power was inseparable from equal rights. In other words, civil rights translate to civil economics. The movement had to be both about equality under the law and economic matters. Eliminating poverty is key to achieving racial equality. Ownership, jobs, and access to capital are all quintessential in achieving racial equality, as Operation PUSH states. Thus, things like livable wages, scholarships, and fair credit are all essential to build wealth and fuel economic mobility. If and when these levers are removed, that’s important to understand as also an attack on civil rights.

Using Black-Owned Banks

Throughout his career, Rev. Jackson pushed to support African American-owned banks and financial institutions (like credit unions) as a means to boost economic development in Black communities. These could keep money circulating in the community, compounding for the community. He also advocated their use so that Black patrons would be less likely to face the all-too-common racial discrimination when applying for loans. The number of Black-owned banks has been decreasing in recent years, and there are just over 20 operating today.

Understanding ‘Economic Violence’

“What’s the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence,” Jackson said on July 19, 1988 in his speech to the Democratic National Convention when running for president. Jackson wanted everyone to understand that policy choices that send economic shock are violence, that sudden layoffs (like plants closing without notice), function as violence. Thus, it remains important to push for economic policy that consciously shields communities from these sudden and shocking losses.

Education as a Wealth Strategy

Jackson pushed for education, especially as a means to building wealth and gaining economic mobility. That’s why he launched PUSH Excel in 1975 to motivate students to reach for academic excellence, despite whatever challenges they may be facing on family, communal, or other fronts. “If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I can achieve it,” Rev. Jackson often told students when opening his talks to them. He knew that a better education could mean higher career earnings and holding positions of power at major corporations, rather than sitting at their fringes.

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