Jesse Jackson
You are not mourned.
You are recorded.
You still walk among us.
Yet history already carries your name.
When America was dark,
you spoke.
Not for yourself,
but for the beaten,
the silenced,
the forgotten.
You walked beside Martin Luther King Jr.,
hand in hand,
until the bullet spoke
what cowards could not say aloud.
You stood in Chicago,
where doors were closed,
and helped force them open—
through the Chicago Freedom Movement.
The state forgets quickly.
History does not.
When you one day meet Dr. King beyond this world,
tell him the truth—
racism still breathes,
hatred still organizes.
You wore faith without spectacle.
You spoke hope without illusion.
You knew that mercy,
to endure,
must be defended.
And through memory,
you endure.
Rest now.
History is awake.
And it remembers.
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