I was Student Government President at North Carolina Central University when Jesse ran for President in 1984. As students, we saw in his campaign the issues that mattered and the energy that was needed to bring new voters into politics. It wasn’t about Democrat or Republican. We weren’t even thinking about that. We were thinking about how people could have enough to survive and thrive in this society...

I remember once, when I was volunteering for his Presidential campaign, Jesse made me so angry. We had been organizing and we missed some points in our presentation. He made two of us stay up all night researching the points. He said, “You don’t get second chances in this, and people are counting on you to have your stuff together.” This was after we had done five stops with hardly any money - five of us sleeping in one room, and all of volunteers. The first time Jesse ran for president in 1984, he didn’t hardly have any money for security or staff. We all volunteered, and yet when it was over we had registered millions of new voters.

Everywhere he went when he ran for President, Jesse would take more time registering voters than he would giving a speech. He registered new voters of every race, creed, and color. We didn’t have a precinct on our college campus, but after Reverend Jackson came through in 1984, we decided we had to fight for a precinct on that campus. We marched 2,000 students to the polls, fought for our own precinct, and got it...

I remember one day when we were with Jesse on the campaign, he took us to this restaurant. And the lady there said, “It’s Reverend Jackson. Let me give you a free meal.”

He said, “No, no.” And he pointed to a guy outside. He said, “If you want to give a free meal, give it to him.”

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