Remembering Jesse Jackson

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Rev. Jesse Jackson had a long career fighting for racial justice, from founding the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to running for president twice. He died on Tuesday at age 84. Bishop William Barber II, who knew Jackson, shares a remembrance.

Then, Dorris Wright is one of the original Greenville Eight. She worked with Jackson to desegregate the Greenville, S.C., public library in 1960, and details her time with him.

And, Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall died Sunday at the age of 95. We revisit his 2021 conversation with Here & Now’s Robin Young about his long career in film.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:17.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:22.6	Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is rainbow, red, yellow, brown, black, and white. We're all precious in God's sight.
0:36.6	Jesse Jackson's lifelong fight for civil rights and economic justice.
0:43.1	It's Tuesday, February 17th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBOR.
0:48.6	I'm Chris Bentley.
0:49.3	Thank you. Today on the show, we remember the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights champion who fought for racial and economic equality, and a trailblazing candidate for president who changed American politics.
1:12.4	Also, we'll listen back to Robin Young's 2021 conversation with actor Robert Duval,
1:18.0	who died Sunday at 95 years old after more than six decades on the big screen.
1:24.1	I always believe I do my own horsemanship, my own singing, and my own dancing in a
1:29.2	movie. Robert Duvall, in his own words, coming up at about 20 minutes. But first,
1:35.4	We must leave racial battleground and come the economic common ground and more with higher ground.
1:42.0	America, our time has come.
1:45.7	The Reverend Jesse Jackson led major civil rights campaigns in his 20s,
1:51.2	became a protege of Martin Luther King Jr., and eventually one of the most influential political figures in America.
1:59.1	Soon, we'll hear from one of his earliest allies in his fight against segregation.
2:04.5	But we want to reflect first with Bishop William J. Barber II, President of Repairers of the
2:10.8	Breach, a social justice nonprofit. He spoke to Scott Tong.
2:15.8	You know, this morning when I got the call and I talked to his family, one of the things his wife
2:21.0	said was a mighty lion has fallen.
2:24.5	And he was indeed a lion for justice.
	...

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