Jesse Jackson’s death was noted with predictable comments praising him as a great Civil Rights leader; all this is true. However, comments have omitted his more original contributions. He blended the business acumen of a Whitney Young with the universal vision of a Martin Luther King.

With his presidential candidacies in 1984 and 1988, Jackson not only strengthened Black voters, but he also revived the Left’s critique of U.S. foreign policy. He was the first progressive since former Vice President Henry Wallace in 1948 to question orthodoxy in foreign policy. As with King’s Riverside Church speech in 1967, which denounced Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam War policies, Jackson proposed alternatives to America’s approach to foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.

Moreover, he introduced these ideas into a political campaign. Instead of the usual Democratic pablum of “jobs, jobs, jobs,” Jackson introduced voters to the developing world. He played a key role in rescuing an American pilot shot down over Syria in 1983; he also went to Cuba, bringing home a political prisoner. In both cases, he mastered the “art of the deal.” Jackson proved that he was more than a Civil Rights leader, but a first-rate negotiator and diplomat.

Additionally, Jackson created the Rainbow Coalition, which embraced emerging LGBTQ constituencies and Hispanics. His “I am somebody” refrain reminded all that the Civil Rights struggle extended to what he referred to as the “damned, despised, and disinherited.” Certainly, he was the heir to the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. King so eloquently promoted before his assassination on April 4, 1968.

No voice in the movement so advocated for the downtrodden as Jackson, unless it was Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker. Indeed, as in the case of Baker and Hamer, who challenged the Democratic Party in 1964 at the Atlantic City Convention over the need to recognize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Jackson later completed the work by demanding proportional distribution of delegates. More than anyone else, Jackson galvanized the “New Left” and gave it purpose and power.

He was more than a humanitarian; he was a practical political leader who placed pressure on Corporate America on behalf of those who suffered discrimination. Jackson, whose Operation PUSH was based in Chicago, knew the urban setting outside the South far better than the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He stressed African Americans’ buying power and secured concessions from corporations. Certainly, Jackson mastered the art of power, blending it with a moral message.

Jackson made enemies, some predictable. Despite many exceptions to the rule, the Speaker of the House predictably prevented his body from being displayed in the Capitol Rotunda. President Donald Trump was more gracious than Mike Johnson and lauded him appropriately. Perhaps he realized the value of a maverick praising a maverick. But Jackson needed none of these affirmations, for his legacy was secured. Indeed, his exhortation of “keep hope alive” will long outlive his detractors.