What Reverend Jesse Jackson Means To Me And The Still Unfinished Movement

Source: Jeffrey Markowitz / Getty

I met Rev. Jesse Jackson in one of the most defining moments of my early organizing life — and I had to tell him no. 

1993. The March on Washington for LGBT Rights. I was one of four co-chairs of the march, young and determined, part of a generation carrying forward the unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Jackson was, by then, already a giant — a national figure whose voice had reshaped American politics. Rev. Jackson had been the kick-off...