The Rev. Jesse Jackson was known for his soaring oratory, but Carla Campbell-Jackson with the Bloomington-Normal NAACP remembers Jackson more for his personal touch.
She said a man who had been through so much — including the assassination of his mentor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — took time for a tender moment with her son, who was in Jackson's Rainbow PUSH coalition oratorical contest.
“He stopped and looked at Bradley’s hair and he patted his afro and he said, ‘You know, I used to wear my hair like that back in the '60s and '70s. I had an afro just like you do,'" said Campbell-Jackson, the NAACP chapter’s vice president. “So he had an opportunity to show some levity ... loving and supporting the young people.”
Leaders with the Bloomington-Normal NAACP are among the community leaders who reflected on the life of Jackson, the civil rights leader from Chicago who died Tuesday at age 84.
Campbell-Jackson's son Bradley Ross Jackson, now a student at Morehouse College, a Historically Black College in Atlanta, has received an annual scholarship through Jesse Jackson's coalition.
“That is going to allow the Rev. Jackson’s legacy to live on beyond the current generation but to make sure our youth remain engaged and inspired,” said Campbell-Jackson.
Linda Foster, president of the Bloomington-Normal NAACP, said she was inspired by the Rev. Jackson years ago. Foster said she got her first chance to meet Jackson in 2021 when he came to Bloomington. Jackson led a march in the late ISU student Jelani Day's honor calling for police to do more to investigate his death. Authorities said Day drowned.
“It came full circle because of the history, the legacy and then actually seeing him in person was awesome,” Foster recalled.
Mayor inspired
Jackson’s rise to prominence heavily influenced a future Bloomington mayor’s decision to seek public office — and even to live in the United States.
Mboka Mwilambwe, who served as mayor from 2021 to 2025 after 10 years on the city council, said he vividly recalled watching the news in 1984 when he saw Jackson campaigning for president.
“The sights, the sounds and the symbolism of a Black man running for president of the United States were inspiring,” said Mwilambwe, who grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Watching this as a teenager, I thought America was a country where anything was possible, and that’s why I chose to pursue higher education in America and eventually run for office."
Mwilambwe said he met Jackson in 2021.
“My family could not believe I had the opportunity to meet this historic figure, who has had such an impact on the Civil Rights Movement,” Mwilambwe said.
Campaigning in Bloomington
A labor leader recalled Rev. Jackson’s visit to Bloomington in 1988 when the civil rights leader was running for president.
Mike Matejka introduced Jackson at a union rally when he campaigned for striking workers at what was then the Nestle plant in Bloomington, the day before the Illinois primary election.
“Having a presidential candidate and someone of his prominence come to speak was a great sign of support for those workers,” said Matejka, adding the union requested each of the Democratic candidates for president to rally on behalf of the workers. Jackson was the only candidate who came to see them, Matejka recalled.
Matejka noted Jackson called for a boycott of Nestle, adding that may have helped resolve the labor dispute.
“It’s negative PR and knowing he was very effective at launching boycotts and putting pressure on companies, his presence I’m sure helped the situation,” Matejka said.
Matejka said Jackson brought the Civil Rights Movement north after MLK was assassinated as he pushed corporations to hire Black workers for more specialized tasks than many companies were willing to at that time.
“We’re talking early '70s, and for African American folks to get jobs beyond sweeping floors and running elevators and those kinds of positions ... to get into management track, to get into more professional jobs, his campaigns opened up the door to make sure companies were more open in terms of whom they hire,” Matejka said.
Foster said Jackson ran for president twice because he believed we could make the country better. Decades later, Foster said Jackson's legacy remains one of hope for people to believe in themselves and to believe in something greater.
“He was the one who instilled keep hope alive and he was also one to encourage us to know that you are somebody,” Foster said. “And we say that today to your young people, that you are somebody.”
