Remembering Rev. Jesse Jackson

President Trump called Rev. Jesse Jackson "a force of nature," and so he was. Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84, was the last great orator of the civil rights movement. He could bring an audience to cheers or to tears with the power of his personality.

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I once accompanied him to a Washington, D.C., public middle school. He admonished the young girls in the all-Black audience not to get pregnant, and to the boys, he said to respect the girls and refrain from sex until marriage. They seemed to hang on his every word. Afterward, I said to him: "That should be your main message if you want to help people out of poverty, not politics." The temptation that is politics, apparently, was too strong and got him the most attention.

I invited him to speak at Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, Virginia. At the time, I was working for Falwell. Jackson delivered what is called a "social gospel" sermon, emphasizing the things of this world and its concerns rather than what conservative Baptist ministers preach about an eternal kingdom.