Jackson Dies at 84, 1972 Gary Convention Marks His Breakthrough

CHICAGO — Reverand. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, two-time presidential candidate, and close ally of Martin Luther King Jr., has died at 84.

Gary, Indiana played a key role in Jackson’s rise. In March 1972, more than 8,000 Black leaders, activists, and entertainers gathered in the steel city for the National Black Political Convention. The three-day event focused on how Black Americans could gain more power in politics and their communities. Jackson, leading his group Operation PUSH, energized the crowd with his call of “Nationtime,” saying, “I am a Black man, and I want a Black party.”

The convention was organized by Gary Mayor Richard Hatcher, one of the first Black mayors in the country, poet Amiri Baraka, and Congressman Charles Diggs of Detroit. Gary was not an obvious choice for a national political convention. The city had no big hotels to host a crowd that large, but Hatcher offered West Side High School and draped City Hall in red, black, and green banners. The city had a Black mayor and police chief, showing what Black leadership could achieve locally.

The Gary convention came just a few years after King’s assassination and amid unrest in cities across the country. Many Black Americans felt the Democratic and Republican parties were not delivering.

The convention debated whether to work within the system or build independent Black political power. It issued the Gary Declaration, calling for self-determination and demanding that Black voices be heard.

Jackson’s speech there helped put him on the national stage, and decades later his push for political empowerment still inspires movements like Black Lives Matter.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

His daughter, Santita Jackson, said he passed away at home in Chicago surrounded by family after battling a rare neurological disorder.