(AP) — When the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced his second presidential bid in 1988 in Pittsburgh, he saw the campaign as a chance for the country to realize its highest ideals.

“If I can become president,” said Jackson, who grew up poor and Black in segregated South Carolina, “every woman can. Every man can. I’m giving America a chance to make a choice to fulfill the highest and best of an authentic and honest democracy.”

While unsuccessful, the campaign captured the imaginations of countless Americans who were inspired by Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84.

Decades later, generations of young people who watched his historic campaigns or learned about his career have become veteran activists, clergy members, civic leaders and lawmakers. Many say that his unapologetic message of equality and justice informs their work today.

“Here I was, a kid growing up in public housing, and I got to witness this Black man running for president. He gave me a glimpse of what is possible, and he taught me how to say, ‘I am somebody’,” said Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, referring to one of Jackson’s slogans adopted from a poem.

Warnock also serves as the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the congregation once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Georgia Democrat said Jackson’s example was “needed now more than ever” in response to the Trump administration’s actions on elections, global affairs and immigration.

“His voice is now silent, but his example is eternal, and that work is left to us,” Warnock said.

A life of advocacy

Jackson’s life included work as a globe-trotting humanitarian, a champion for a progressive economic agenda and leadership of the Civil Rights Movement that was once led by King, Jackson’s mentor. Jackson was present when King was assassinated at a Memphis hotel.

Jackson’s 1988 presidential bid pushed many Americans to contemplate whether, two decades after King’s killing, one of his proteges could be elected to the White House. His message of equality in the Democratic primary resonated with a broad set of voters and blindsided party leaders, who reformed the primary system in response to the surge of engagement.

Strategists credit those reforms with enabling the election of another Black candidate from Illinois to the presidency two decades later.

Barack Obama agreed in a statement praising Jackson’s life.

Former first lady Michelle Obama “got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager,” Obama wrote. “And in his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office in the land.”

The connection did not stop Jackson from criticizing Obama or mentoring activists who challenged the first Black president’s administration.

“He continued to reach out to young Black activists throughout the protests that started in 2014,” said DeRay McKesson, a racial justice activist who organized in Ferguson, Missouri, as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. “As an activist and organizer, I appreciate that Jesse, just like the generation of people he came up with, had a deep understanding of structural change.”

Jackson remained a political force after his presidential bids. From the Chicago headquarters of his organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he mentored leaders for decades. After his death, scores of activists, political operatives and members of Congress credited their careers to Jackson.