Seattle remembers Rev. Jesse Jackson
Feb 18, 2026, 5:49 AM | Updated: 7:27 am
Western Washington and the entire United States are mourning the loss of civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Jackson, who was with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated and twice ran for president, made numerous visits to the Pacific Northwest. KIRO 7’s cameras were rolling for many of those visits, which often included stops at the civil rights hub of Mount Zion Baptist Church, big tech boardrooms, and local schools.
“We were OGs, so we worked on a lot of things together,” Eddie Rye told KIRO 7.
Rye knew Jackson better than most. Acquainted through Mount Zion, Rye ran his campaign for president in Washington State in 1984. It was just one of the many times they worked together over the course of more than half a century of friendship.
“He was a jovial guy,” he said. “My daughter, Angela, visited with him less than a month ago. He was not verbal at the time.”
Rye said the biggest lasting legacy of Jackson’s long and storied career is the way he transformed the participation of Black Americans in the political process, turning many from voters and donors into delegates and advocates.
“A lot of people had never really thought about getting intricately involved in the political process until Reverend Jackson ran, and that’s something that resonated all across the country,” he said.
Jackson’s career lasted long after the civil rights marches in the ‘60s and his two presidential runs in the ‘80s.
“This city really owes a lot to Reverend Jackson, and Reverend Jackson loved this city,” Nate Miles, who worked on Jackson’s 1984 campaign, said. “He loved coming here.”
Miles and Darrell Powell showed Jackson around during a visit to Seattle in the 2010s, when he met with tech giants like Microsoft to advocate for diversity, preached at Mount Zion and spoke to students at Rainier Beach High School.
“‘If you study, you can be somebody.’ He always said that,” Powell, who is now president of the Seattle and King County NAACP, said. “‘I am somebody.’ We went into the chant, ‘I am somebody.’ It was just very motivating for the students as well as the staff.”
Jackson’s role in the fight for equality is now over, but what he stood for will never be forgotten by those who knew him.
“The impact of Reverend Jackson will last forever,” Rye said.
Jackson’s work regularly went beyond racial equality. For example, he advocated for the release of Kenneth Bae, a Lynnwood man who was imprisoned in North Korea.
Bae was convicted of trying to overthrow the government.
He was released after two years and Jackson met him for dinner upon his return to Washington.
“I’ll tell you, people called Reverend Jackson from around the world when they were seeking justice,” Rye said. “That’s something that will always be there in his history. It should be preserved, and I want to make sure I do my best to do that.”
“We are appreciative of Reverend Jackson and his lifelong pursuit of equality and justice- including for my brother Kenneth,” Terri Chung, Bae’s sister said in a statement. “We have lost an icon.”
Jackson was 84 years old.
