By Zerline Hughes SpruillGrowing up, it was just me (the dancer), mom (the administrative legal beagle), and dad (the City of Los Angeles street maintenance worker who was 18 years my mother’s senior). We shared very few things in common, but when Rev. Jesse Jackson ran for president, our family was on the same accord for one week during his campaign for presidential nomination in 1988!
I was 11, learning in my fifth grade class about presidential elections, what the electoral college was, and how caucuses worked. But the real education came when my parents signed up through mom’s job at SCLC to campaign in our South Central Los Angeles community for Rev. Jackson.
I remember Daddy taping giant “Vote for Jesse Jackson ‘88” posters on the doors and the tailgate of our black minivan. We were given an electric bullhorn with straps that wrapped from the ceiling inside the minivan, to the outside rooftop. The bullhorn was somehow connected to a speaker system that repeatedly played Rev. Jackson’s voice saying: “Keep hope alive. Vote for me, Jesse Jackson” with the backdrop of Kool Moe Dee’s “How Ya Like Me Now,” followed by Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” The recording also included a song with a woman blaring, “Keep hope alive … in order to survive, we’ve got to do it everyday.” I can hear the jingles now, to this day.
At first, I was embarrassed when Daddy picked me up from my school bus stop with the car looking like a billboard on wheels. But when Daddy got in that slow lane, turned on his hazard blinkers and strolled down Martin Luther King, Western, Slauson and Vermont, folks waved, gave thumbs up and honked their horns in solidarity. I felt like a hero. I looked forward to getting in the car whenever they decided to hit the streets that one week. I remember Daddy smiling, feeling very proud of his civic engagement. Or maybe he was smiling because there was a stipend for the effort.
I have since sat in the same room on many occasions with Rev. Jackson, but never thought to share with him the campaign work we did on his behalf. Having worked as a journalist and civil rights and justice reform communications leader, I’ve seen him at the lectern, standing in the wings of a stage or sitting in the front row where the VIPs sat. His presence on this earth was, indeed, very important.
Even though Rev. Jackson didn’t win the first or second effort at the U.S. presidency, it was a win for the culture. It was a special time for my family and the United States and we talk about it quite often - including today as we commemorate the life of a civil rights and American history icon. Rev. Jackson was awe inspiring and his legacy will live on forever.
Thank you, Rev. Jesse Jackson. Rest well. We will keep hope alive.