Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-02-17 Tuesday

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Democracy Now! Tuesday, February 17, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We must never see hope alive. The towering civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. We'll look at Jackson's historic life and legacy from his close association with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s to his historic presidential campaigns in the 80s to his role as a global peace. maker. They're spending a trillion dollars in Iraq on the wrong target. Overthoring the government in Libya will begin there and billions more to restore it. Two billion a week in Afghanistan.

And yet we're laying off teachers, firemen, policemen. We'll speak with Howard University professor Clarence Lussein and civil rights activist Larry Ham, who served as co-chair of the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign in New Jersey in 1988 and was a Jackson delegate in 84 and 88. Plus, we hear from another Jackson delegate, Senator Bernie Sanders, about Reverend Jackson's legacy. I happen to believe that Jesse Jackson is one of the very most significant political leaders in this country in the last 100 years. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate has died at his home in Chicago at the age of 84. He was a member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s inner circle, marching alongside him for civil rights. He was with Dr. King when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1960. Reverend Jackson became the founder and president of Rainbow Push Coalition in Chicago, the first African American to greet South African President Nelson Mandela when he came out of jail in 1990. This is Reverend Jesse Jackson on Democracy Now back in 2017, shortly after President Trump took office for the first time. He spoke about expanding the constitutional right to vote.

When we got the right to vote in 1965, blacks couldn't vote, white women couldn't serve when jurors in the South, 18 years couldn't vote, you couldn't vote bilingual, you couldn't vote bilingual, you couldn't vote bilingual. But we were able to challenge that and get the portion of representation and democratized democracy. After headlines, we'll hear from Jesse Jackson in his own words on his past appearances in democracy now, and we'll speak with those who knew him well. second round of indirect talks between the Trump administration and Iranian officials is underway in Geneva, Switzerland. Ahead of the talks Iran's foreign ministry said it's willing to discuss limits to its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Adding Iran will not accept zero uranium enrichment. On Monday, Iran's military stage war games in the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. Navy steamed a second aircraft carrier strike group toward the Arabian Sea. The USS Gerald Ford is the largest Air Force carrier. It was off the coast of Venezuela when the U.S. abducted the Venezuelan president and his wife. U.S. officials said Friday, Trump is considering an attack on Iran that could last for weeks. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who's been pushing for the U.S. to topple Iran's government, was in Tel Aviv Monday. A visit, he said, was to reassure the Israeli people that there's no gap between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran policy.

There are two lines in the water right now. Once a diplomatic line, trying to find a way to end this regime. Diplomatically, that will advance our national security interest. The other line is the military option. I think President Trump is looking for which line can catch the biggest fish. The bottom line is we're into weeks, not months, terms of decision-making. Ukrainian and Russian officials are also meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today for U.S.

brokered peace talks just days ahead at the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia is demanding Ukraine give up 20 percent to the eastern region of Donetsk, which Ukraine refuses to do ahead of the talks. U.S. senators Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon White House traveled to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky and vowed to pass a bill aimed at Russia. Senator Blumenthal also said the U.S. should supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and that the Pentagon should help guarantee Ukraine's security under any deal to end Russia's war.

There have to be ironclad, airtight security guarantees as a linchpin for peace. Ukraine needs and deserves a guarantee from the United States, not just European powers, that it will be actively engaged if Russia again attacks. In Gaza, a senior Hamas leader involved in the ceasefire negotiations tells drop-site news, Hamas will not agree to demands that it unilaterally disarm. Basim Naim also said Hamas will not submit to Israel's demand for a total demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. This comes amidst reports that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed back in December that Hamas would be given a two-month deadline to disarm. On Monday, the Hind Rajab Foundation said it's filed a criminal complaint in Chile seeking the prosecution of Ram Kovhtun. and Israel Defense Forces sniper accused of taking part in the deadly 2024 siege of the Al-Shefa Hospital.

The World Health Organization reports at least 21 patients were killed during the attacks on the hospital. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations Development Program is demanding greater access to Gaza to expand aid and recovery efforts. Administrator Alexander de Cruz spoke from Gaza City. More than 300,000 families in Gaza are looking for housing. Only 10% of people today living in Gaza have housing, which has the basic accommodation. So 90% of the population is today looking for housing. You have seen in which very difficult circumstances people have to live or have to survive. President Trump called Cuba a failed nation Monday and refused to rule out military action aimed at

toppling the Cuban government, Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One. And they should absolutely make a deal because it's a humanitarian threat. We'll see how it all turns out, but Cuba and us, we are talking. In the meantime, there's an embargo. There's no oil. There's no money. There's no anything. Cuba's deputy foreign minister responded to Trump's remarks, writing, quote, it's frequent for U.S. officials and diplomats to claim U.S. aggression is not responsible for difficulties in Cuba. It seems they don't listen to their president, unquote.

The Trump administration's blockade of fuel has triggered a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Cuba, compounding the impact of the U.S. economic embargo that's been in place since 1962. On Monday, Spain's foreign ministry said it would use United Nations channels to send humanitarian aid to Cuba. The announcement came a day after activists rallied outside the Cuban embassy in Mexico City expressing solidarity with the Cuban people while protesting the U.S. blockade. Faced with this attack that aims to leave Cuba without energy for hospitals, without fuel for its ambulances, without resources to bring food to the family table, solidarity between peoples is emerging today as the most powerful antidote against the blockade, because while the United States government imposes sanctions and punishment, dignified governments and pupils, like Mexico's, respond with brotherhood.

Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Monday, the FBI's formally notified investigators, their agency will not receive access to evidence in the killing of Alex Preti. Freddie was shot to death in Minneapolis, January 24th by Border Patrol agent Jesus Choa and Customs and Border Protection Officer Ramundo Guterres, who fired 10 rounds in under five seconds. Six of the bullets were fired as Preti may lay motionless on the ground. The FBI previously refused to share information about the shooting of Venezuelan immigrant, Julio Cesar Sasselis, who was shot in leg by ICE agents who then lied about the search. circumstances of the shooting. And Renee Nicole Macklin Good, who was fatally shot by a border patrol officer on January 7th. Democratic Governor Tim Walz blasted the FBI's withholding of evidence, writing, quote, Minnesota needs impartial investigations into the shootings of American citizens on our streets. Trump's left hand cannot investigate his right hand. The families

of the deceased deserve better, unquote. And on Capitol Hill, Attorney General, Pam Bondi's facing bipartisan criticism after she told Congress all documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released. That's despite the fact that Justice Department still holds almost three million pages on Sunday Republican Congress member Tom Massey of Kentucky, who co-author the Epstein Files Transparency Act, told ABC News more files should be released and unredacted. Massey said he no longer has confidence in Bondi as Attorney General and responded to President Trump's personal attacks. Donald Trump told us that even though, you know, he had dinner with these kinds of people in New York City and West Palm Beach, that he would be transparent, but he's not.

He's still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration, and they're attacking me for trying to get these files released. On Monday, Thomas Pritzker resigned from his position as executive chair of the High High. at Hotels Corporation, citing his links to Epstein and Gillesne Maxwell. The release of the Epstein files revealed Pritzker had been in regular contact with Epstein after his 2008 plea deal on sex crimes charges. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass Monday called for Casey Wasserman to step down as chairman of Los Angeles's 2028 Olympic Games over revelations about his ties to Epstein and Maxwell.

In France, police have been searching the Arab World Institute as part of investigation into links between its former president, Jack Lang, and Epstein. Meanwhile, Columbia University said it's cutting all ties with two faculty members in its dental college after the Epstein files revealed they had used an irregular process to help a girlfriend of Epstein gain admission. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show looking at the life and legacy of the towering civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson. He died earlier today at the age of 84. In the 1960s, Jackson worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Jackson was with King when King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1916. 68 at the Lorraine Motel.

Jackson later moved to Chicago where he founded Operation Push, People United to Serve Humanity. He also founded the National Rainbow Coalition. In 1984 and 1988, Jackson ran two groundbreaking presidential campaigns. In 1988, he received about 7 million votes as a presidential candidate. He pushed for cutting the Pentagon budget while increasing domestic spending. on education, housing, and health care. Jackson was also involved in international campaigns from the anti-apartheid struggle in South

Africa to supporting Palestinian self-determination. The Reverend Jackson was hospitalized in November for treatment of a rare and particularly severe neurodegenerative condition, progressive supernuclear palsy, PSP. In a statement, Reverend Jackson's family said, quote, our father was a servant leader, not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world, his unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by, they said. This is a clip of Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

When you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination. I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me. And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it. Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Get chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don't you surrender.

suffering grief, in the end, faith will not the support. You must not surrender. You rejects know that you are qualified. When you hold on, never surrender. America will get cheap hope alive. That's Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 when he ran for president for the second time. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, October 8, 1941.

As a college student in North Carolina, Jackson became involved in the civil rights movement. By the mid-60s, he was a close aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., and became National Director of Operation Breadbasket, a campaign run by the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Over the past 30 years, the Reverend Jesse Jackson was a regular guest on Democracy Now. In 2011, I spoke with him shortly after the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. I think we would do well to use the stature as an occasion to deal with this unfinished business. He was shot down assassinate at age 39. His last agenda items included a poor people's campaign, dequest to end the war in Vietnam, and stop the radical installation of capital in the hands of the very well.

And today, here we are, with too few people with too much wealth, subsidized by the government, too many unnecessary awards and too many people in poverty. So in some sense, this memorial gives us a rallying point to keep dealing with his unfinished business. We bail out the banks, without link to lending and reinvestment, for example. The Bush tax cut extension is more money than all of the state budget deficits combined. So clearly, Wall Street has made out big time, but the poor are the poor, are expanding, and we're losing jobs in mass, and we must, in fact, turn it around. He died a very unpopular man, attacked by our government, attacked by the media,

shunned by many blacks themselves, for example, civil rights actions, because he dared to deal with the issue of unjust, unnecessary wars. They were spending a trillion dollars in Iraq on the wrong target, overthrowing the government in Libya, a billion there, billions more to restore it, or two billion a week, and Afghanistan, and yet we're laying off teachers, firemen, policemen. He would be distressed by that. He would be weeping about that. The bailout for these banks who drove us in the hole, and then they get bailed out without

links to kind of inner reinvestment. We re-futified them, not restructured to them. These issues that not thinking would have raised would be troubling, but it is his sense of outrage and conscience that make us better today. And I would hope, as Vince said, that the interpretation must lead us. to his unfinished business. The dream only makes sense if it's connected to the broken promise that had been unfulfilled for 100 years.

And today, the dream has to put every American back to work. That means reinvesting in the coming people bottom up. We're cutting public transportation, the non-accesses to jobs, resegregating. Our schools are most segregated. The biggest growth industry in most states, the jail industrial complex. So he would see me raising troubling questions of conscience. So I would see this monument as an opportunity to raise issues of jobs and peace and justice. The late Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking on Democracy Now in 2011.

He died earlier today at the age of 84. In 2008, Reverend Jackson appeared on Democracy Now just after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucus. We'll list first and he started significance. in African-American winning white Iowans, matured enough in their thinking to choose message and relationships over race is a big deal because there were those who would say don't go to the Iowa in their hampshire because they're not representative of the multicultural states.

So that's said a lot to me about the maturing of America. I could not help to think about the struggle to get to that point. Many journalists think it came down from the sky and it started in Boston. But this journey from the 54 Supreme Court decision to end legal apartheid in this country, having succeeded slavery, was a big moment in American history. Then in 55, the lynching of Emmett Till, which traumatized and woke up America. and then out of it four months later the sit-in of Rosa Parks and the emergence of Dr. King. And then in the 1960 students coming alive and risking and sitting in and going to jail,

leading toward the 63 March of Dr. King led up his dream of hope for the nation and the climax in the next year in the 64 public accommodation bill. But then the same 64 says hope kept rising politically, finally a little hammer and that group at the Democratic Convention in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, challenged the liberal democratic structure of Montel and Humphrey and Johnson and in 64. And then while we supported the Democrats, they didn't have as their platform the Voting Rights Act. Johnson said that Dr. King, I'm going to ask about the Voting Rights Act. Dr. King, I like it very much.

But you can't get the Voting Rights Act. The reality is, politically, that if we get the voting rights act, we'll lose a south for a quarter of a century. Dr. King said, well, we have to get the Voting Rights Act. And so we marched in South Alabama to get the Voting Rights Act and the blood of the people. And, of course, that struggle has spawned everything politically at the 65 Voting Rights Act. And then the hatched evicted. That time a black male of here was a national story. The black male of Cleveland, Karl Stokes, was a non.

There was a national story at that time and it continued to grow and by 72 we challenged the the mcgovernor rules you recall we unseated the delegation as we sought to have a more multicultural seating of delegates from states in 72 and by 83 Harold was running to mayor and Mundell and he came into defeat him with uh to support jane brannan and um and um and daily and we resisted that and it was tension between our growth in the process and out of that it drove me in fact to run in 84 and 88 and we kept expanding it fund that coalition and we won with new registered voters new voters Democrats were getting in the Senate in 86 in the south we won North Carolina and Louisiana and Alabama and Florida but 88 we expanded that they

and while it became government in 89, we won a billion in 88, while it made, the things became male, New York, and 89, we won New York in 88. And so this thing has just continued. So when the media says, well, the civil rights struggle, he's a beneficiary of it. Now the benefactor of it, but each generation becomes beneficiary and then benefactor. This year, he's a beneficiary of that struggle. Next time those who came in across him, he'll be the beneficiary, he'll be the beneficiary, He'll be the benefactor, but the struggle continues.

And so from the 54th end of the apartheid to the Bullying Rights Act, to the urban breakthroughs, to Harold Washington, they're the political campaigns. To me, this is historic and non-broken line. And I might add, even the party resist to supporting Frey Mandela. We were on the side of the South African government. We thought that was our security. So I think it's a great moment for American democracy. That's the late Reverend Jesse Jackson. speaking in 2008 on Democracy Now, it was on a Sunday after his radio show in his studio,

and I had begun by asking whether he supported Senator Obama for president, even though he had not publicly endorsed his campaign. To see all our interviews with the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, you can go to DemocracyNow.org. In 2024, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, Friends and supporters of the Reverend Jackson gathered in Chicago to pay him tribute. This is Senator Bernie Sanders. I happen to believe that Jesse Jackson is one of the very most significant political leaders in this country in the last 100 years.

And I think sometimes we take for granted. all that he has accomplished and the walls that he has broken down. Today, when people say, you know, black and white and Latino and Asian American and Native American and gay and straight, have got to stand together, people were not talking like that 30 or 40 years ago. And I will never forget one of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen. Do you all recall the Reverend Jackson standing on a bale of hay in Iowa? Anybody remember that? Surrounded by white farmers. And the point that he was making there, which was a point people were not making in America or time, is that the people who were destroying the corporate forces that were destroying family-based

agriculture for white farmers in Iowa were exactly the same people who were exploiting black workers and Latino workers. And back in 84-88, that was a pretty profound statement. So I'm not going to list for you the achievements of Jesse Jackson, you know how often he has ended up in jail fighting against racism and segregation. You know how many countless, probably hundreds and hundreds of demonstrations he has led in every part of this country. You all know his work with Dr. King, his historic and enormously important work. But, you know, he's a historic and enormously important work. But Jesse's contribution to modern history is not just bringing us together, it is bringing us together around a progressive agenda. So let us be crystal clear.

There would not have been, in my view, a Barack Obama in 2008 without Jesse Jackson. There would not have been a vice president. Kamala Harris in 2020 without Jesse Jackson. And there would not have been a president, Kamala Harris, without Jesse Jackson. For president, in 2016, I talked about Medicare for all and health care as a human right. Well, guess what? Jesse Jackson was there 30 years before I was. 30 years ago, he was talking about health care as a human

right and universal health care. 30 years ago, he was talking about profoundly changing our national priorities, taking care of our kids, not giving tax breaks to billionaires. Jesse Jackson, 30 years ago. When he came

to Burlington, Vermont, we took him to a child care center. He understood that in the richest country on earth, you don't turn your backs on the children or turn your backs on the elderly or turn your backs on the working class of this country. So I have known Jesse Jackson and his family for many, many decades. And it has been one of the honors of my life. He is a hero of mine, proud to call him and his family friends. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the great heroes of American society. Thank you all very much.

Senator Bernie Sanders, speaking in 2024 at an event in Chicago on the eve of the Democratic National Convention honoring the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died today at the age of 84. In 1988, Sanders endorsed Jackson for president at the time he was. was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Coming up, we'll speak to Howard University Professor Clarence Lusane and civil rights activist Larry Hamm, who served as co-chair of the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign in New Jersey in 1988. He was a Jackson delegate then and also a Bernie Sanders delegate in 2020. Stay with us. She'll be a fire house

Down Sweet Honey in the Rock performing down by the Riverside in our firehouse studio more than 20 years ago And we'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary February 23rd Here in New York at the historic

Riverside Church Where Dr. King gave his major speech Opposing the War in Vietnam To get tickets to this amazing event with Angela Davis and Naomi Klein with Whitmer Salas and Michael Stipe, go to Democracy Now.org. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We're continuing our look at the life and legacy of the Reverend Jackson, who died today at the age of 84. A civil rights icon, two-time presidential candidate. We're joined now by two guests. Larry Ham is a longtime civil

rights activist. He's chair of the People's Organization for Progress. He was co-chair of the Jackson for President campaign in New Jersey in 1988, also a Jackson delegate at the Democratic National Convention then and the former resident of the New Jersey chapter of the Rainbow Coalition. And we're joined by Clarence Lussein, political science professor at Howard University, the director of of the International Affairs Program there. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Professor Clarence Lussein, let's begin with you. You woke up this morning with this news of this historic figure having passed, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Your thoughts on his significance on his life and legacy. Good morning, Amy. Good morning, Larry as well. Yeah, my phone has been blowing up with texts from not just

people here in the U.S. but from around the world as the news spread. I want to echo what Bernie Sanders said about Jackson's contribution. Jackson's life contributed to making this country more democratic, more inclusive, more fair. What Jackson was able to do was to marry movements, grassroots movements, with electoral politics. Prior to the 1980s, a lot of activists who were working on issues from anti-nuclear kinds of concerns to peace issues to civil rights had a kind of sketchy relationship with electoral politics. And Jackson saw that that was a vehicle for being able to bring this country to its principles that it exposes.

And so in 84 and in 88, Jackson was doing two things. One was building an electoral movement that would make the Democratic Party and electoral politics more democratic. But at the same time, he was also building a movement outside of that, the National Rainbow Coalition, which picked up the mantle from the civil rights movement and from what Dr. King and others have been doing in the 1960s and brought that into the 1980s and beyond. And his contributions were not just domestic, of course, but also international, not only

working with folks who were working around issues like human rights and peace, but just a range of concerns that people had around the world. including, of course, the anti-apartheid movement. And talk about that, especially for young people who aren't so familiar with the movement to take down apartheid in South Africa. And going back to 1966, the March Against Fear in Mississippi. Oh, up through, what was it, 2000 with the fight around Gore and Bush. Yep, the 1966 March Against Fear happened in Mississippi. this was three years after King had given his speech at the March on Washington, I have a dream speech.

And Megher Evans had been killed. And James Meredith, who was a local activist in Mississippi, started a march. He was shot during that march, but that then galvanized the entire civil rights movement to come to Mississippi. So Jackson was there, King was there, Stokely Carmichael was there. that's where Stokely-Kar Michael made his famous statement about black power. And that's important because what we see with Jackson is that he brought together the disparate parts of not only the black political movement, people who were nationalist, people who consider themselves socialist, people who consider themselves liberals, even black conservatives, Jackson would galvanize and rally when he ran in 88 and 84.

but Jackson also brought together people outside of the civil rights community and outside of the black community. And so that was really kind of a turning point. So then we get to 1983 and there's a big celebration of the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington. But it's also a protest against Reagan. Reagan had been elected in 1980 and launched the harshest anti-civil rights movement. presidency to that date. And so Jackson and civil rights leaders and trade unions and

others called for this march. And at that march, there was a grassroot, there had been a grassroots movement growing, and it swell run, Jesse run. So this wasn't Jackson just saying, I want to be president. This was a recognition of Jackson's work,

his moral and political clarity in that moment. And he launched not only his presidential campaign, which many of us worked on. And Larry, who was critical on that, Ron Daniels, Jack O'Dell, others. But he also launched the National Rainbow Coalition. And they worked in parallel. And as Bernie said and others have noted,

the reason Barack Obama becomes president in 2008 is because of the work that Jackson and others like Fannie Lou Hamer, who made sure that the Democratic Party would democratize. and change the rules of the game so that when Obama ran in 2008, he was running under very different circumstances than even when Jackson ran in 1984 and 1988. And Jackson continued that inside, outside strategy pretty much all of his life. He was active around the Gorby-Bush controversy, for example, where in 19, in 2000 when Gore ran against Bush and essentially Florida stole the election.

There was a suit and the Clarence Thomas and others on the Supreme Court basically gave the election to the electoral college to George W. Bush. Jackson was one of the people out in the street who was organizing and mobilizing around that movement. So he never kind of gave up at any point along the way. And again, just really quickly on the anti-apartheid movement, for decades, the South African white minority held the black majority under severe segregation. And there had been a global movement to bring down that government. Jackson was a central voice in this country consistently on raising that issue. And then when finally Mandela was released from prison, Nelson Mandela, who's the leader of the African National Congress, Jackson was there. And after Mandela became president, Jackson continued to support a new South Africa and a more democratic South Africa.

So it's really important, as you note, that this is taught at Howard University, we certainly include Jackson in our courses on black politics. all the areas. Well, I want to thank you, Clarence Lussein, for being with us, political science professor at Howard University, Director of the International Affairs Program. His books include $20 in change, Harriet Tubman, in the ongoing fight for racial justice and democracy, and the black history of the White House. He talked about Professor Clarence Lussein, Larry. That's Larry Ham, civil rights activist, chairman of the People's Organization for Progress, co-chair of the Jackson for president campaign in New Jersey in 1988. Also a Jackson delegate at the Democratic Convention in 1988 and former president of New Jersey

Chapter of Rainbow Coalition. I wanted to go to a clip of Reverend Jackson speaking again when he ran for president in 1988. We're showing an old clip of you, Larry, holding up a poster that says, Jesse, exclamation, point, Jesse, and your yellow T-shirt says Jersey, Jesse. Let's go to a clip. Never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. That was the phrase before hope, that remarkable picture with Barack Obama. But you go way back. Go back to 1971, Larry. Well, that was my first.

contact with Jesse Jackson in 1971. I had been invited to the SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference National Convention in New Orleans to receive an award. I had just been appointed to the Board of Education in Newark by Ken Gibson, the first black mayor of Newark. And you were the youngest ever member of the Board of Education. You would later become known as a DEMO and you were a protege of Amiri Barak. That is correct. And I was invited down by Coretta Scott King, and I met many of the civil rights leaders that was still living at that time, including Jesse Jackson. In fact, that was my first introduction to his oratorical powers.

He spoke one night for almost like three hours, I think, at the dinner. And then again, we crossed paths at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. in 1972, and Jesse gave one of his most famous speeches at the opening of the National Black Political Convention, Gary, in 1972. But then, as you mentioned, Amy, in 1984, he ran for president. At that time, we had formed in Newark, the People's Organization for Progress in 1982, but in 84, we formed another group called Friends of Jesse Jackson to campaign for Jesse and to raise money for him. And then in 88, everything came together in the 1988 campaign. I was co-chair of his campaign in New Jersey and a Jesse Jackson delegate.

And I want to say one of the major impacts that Jesse had, and I remember this fight pretty clearly was the question of winner-take. all versus proportional representation. At the convention, you were selected to be the presidential nominee based on the number of delegates you won. And if you won a district, you got all the delegates. Jesse Jackson helped change that. So it was proportional. You got the number of delegates in proportion to the number of votes you received. And I think that that mechanistically was one of the things that helped pave the way, as Bernie Sanders and Professor Lussein mentioned, paved the way for Barack Obama to become president. Jesse Jackson, in that way, made the democratic process, as Jesse said, more democratic.

So talk about the significance, I mean, the inspiration for the next generations. I mean, you had Jackson taking on the large corporations, very comfortable walking into Wall Street demanding proportional representation, not only in voting, but based on, for example, in media outlets around the country, proportional representations to the population they broadcast to have African American reporters there, launched many young black reporters in the country being hired. Right. Well, he introduced that principle not only into the political sphere, but into the economic sphere, that black people, as you said in the media, should have representation proportional to our presence in the population, should have contracts in business in proportion to our population.

That was one of his mantras at that time. But what amazes me, Amy, looking at the clips you played here this morning is how prescient, how relevant Jackson's message was in the 80s and 90s to today. I mean, he's talking basically about the same thing, you know, that we're living under political tyranny, economic tyranny of Wall Street, the greatest upward distribution of wealth in the history of a country, increasing poverty. and unemployment, and we need a fundamental change. And I think those of us who recognize Reverend Jackson's contributions, the way we continue to honor him is to step up, intensify the struggle for racial and economic justice in this country. Finally, you ran for various political offices in New Jersey.

you were there at the convention. He got, he was a, in 1988, he got the second greatest number of votes for the presidential nomination. He famously was there in the crowd in Chicago when Barack Obama had just been elected and you saw his tears stained face as he looked up into the crowd. Right. Your final thoughts on Reverend Jesse Jackson? Well, he was our living link to the civil rights movement, the black freedom struggle, the black liberation movement. Jesse Jackson more than anything else was audacious. He had waited around for people to say, Jesse, you should run for president or Jesse, you should do this. It probably wouldn't have happened.

Jesse knew his place in history. He knew because of his role in the civil rights movement. And that's something we should not overlook. We talk more about the contemporary Jesse Jackson. We need to talk about his role in that movement of blood and fury in the 1960s, the civil rights movement in which so many lives were taken. But as I said, the best way that we can honor Jesse Jackson and all the martyrs, we also saw this week a couple of weeks, the passage of Claudette Colvin, is to get back, step up. Colvin was Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks, sat down on the bus and refused to get up. Jesse's daughter, Santita, spoke at the tribute at Abyssinian Baptist Church last week.

I was also there for that. But the best way that we can honor these people is to step up this fight because Jesse's life was an arc. And we saw that arc move in the direction of progress. And now the arc swings in the opposite direction of really counter-revolution. And now we have to step up and build this movement to fight that. Let's end with the Reverend Jesse Jackson in his own words in 2013 at the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington. And so keep dreaming of the Constitution right to vote. Stop the madness in North Carolina in Texas.

Keep dreaming. Keep dreaming. Revive the war in poverty. Keep dreaming. The go from stopping first to stop an employ act, stop and educate, stopping how. Stop and choose schools over jails. Keep dreaming. Keep dreaming student loan, death, forgiveness as a stimulus. Keep dreaming. Revive the U.S. Civil Rights Commission with conscience of our nation. Keep dreaming. Restore full-closed housing. Keep dreaming. Comprehensive immigrants reform that includes Africa, Haiti and the Caribbean. Keep dreaming. Fifty years later, we are free but not equal. Keep dreaming. Choose life over death. Pudas over funerals and more graduation than less funerals. And so keep the faith and through it all, keep hope alive.

That's the Reverend Jesse Jackson on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Reverend Jackson died earlier this morning at the age of 84, at his home surrounded by family. I want to thank Larry Hamm, Civil Rights activist, chair of the People's Organization for Progress, co-chair of the Jackson for President campaign in New Jersey in 88 and a Jackson delegate in 1988. This is Democracy Now. When we come back, we go to Minneapolis to look at ICE and the Justice Department. Two federal immigration officers lied under oath about an attack in Minneapolis involving two Venezuelan immigrants shot by an ICE agent. Stay with us. Sweet Honey in the Rock performing down by the Riverside in our Firehouse studio.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Minnesota, two ICE agents have been suspended and faced criminal. investigation into whether they lied to a jury about the shooting of Venezuelan immigrant last month. The officers claimed Julio Cesar Sos Salas and his cousin Alfredo Alejandro Aljorno attack them with a snow shovel and a broom after a traffic stop on January 14th and said one of the officers fired in self-defense. Shortly after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem described it as an attempted murder of a federal of federal law enforcement.

But video evidence directly contradicts claims the men attacked federal agents. So Cicely said he'd retreated into his home and was shot in the leg while in the process of closing and locking his door. On Thursday, a federal judge dismissed felony assault charges against the cousins after the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis said newly discovered evidence had contradicted. the officer's testimony, and after ICE admitted the federal agents lied under oath. For more, we're joined to Minneapolis by Frederick Gatz, criminal defense attorney who represents Alfredo Alejandra Aljornah. Thanks so much for being with us. Can you explain exactly what happened? How rare for the Department of Justice to admit that their agents lied?

Well, that is unusual, as is the result in this case, which is not only a dismissal, but a dismissal with prejudice, meaning that my client can never be charged again for anything to do with this incident. Explain what took place as you understand it, Fred Gatz. What happened from my client's perspective, which I think is actually the truthful version, is that he was on his way home. He's a door-dash delivery person. and he was followed by ICE agents. This followed the shooting of Renee goodbye about a week, so he was filled with fear.

He just wanted to get home. He gets out of his car and he's running in his home when he's tackled by the ICE agent. At that point, there is a struggle. There's no dispute about that. My client slipped out of his sweater and then was in the process of running into his home. His cousin comes out, Juan So Cusselas, or Julio Socellus.

they do not strike the agent. There's no attack with a broom. There's no attack with a shovel. They run and retreat inside the house behind a closed door, and that's when they're shot at by the agent. If you can explain what they were originally charged with. They were charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a very serious offense. As a result of this, Mr. Alhorna, I mean, he's been branded a criminal, not only here, but, you know, through the internet in his home of Venezuela. And so this person who've been living a law-abiding life up to this point is all of a sudden deemed a criminal. So it's had serious repercussions for this man and his reputation. Can you talk about the significance of the

judge dismissing the case with prejudice? What does with prejudice mean? It means he can never be charged again for anything to do related with this. And I should point out, that the judge granted the government's motion. So was the government's moving to dismiss the case with prejudice that then gave the judge the opportunity to grant that relief? And the government should be commended for taking that bold and affirmative step in recognizing the wrong and making concrete efforts to correct it. Can you explain where your client, Alfredo Alejandro Alhorna, one of the two Venezuelan men and Julio Cesar Sozacelas are right now. They've returned to their families in Minnesota.

And to have ICE issuing a statement admitting its federal agents made false statements under oath, admitting that their agents lied. Explain what's now happened to them. There's ongoing investigations on both the state, and the federal level. But I think it shows the importance of following the facts rather than following the story. The story came out early on. The story was wrong.

And it's heartening to see that the facts prevail. This is one case. And I don't know if it's a message of things to come. We hope so. But in this one case, I've confident justice has been served so far. Why haven't the agents been publicly identified? That's a question you'll have to ask ICE officials. So they're on administrative lead to explain what you expect to happen now with this investigation.

Well, there's two parallel investigations. There's an investigation by local authorities, state and local authorities, and there's an investigation by federal authorities. Those will both proceed at pace. I don't know, and you alluded to it in different contexts, the extent of coordination. if any, between those investigations. Before Operation Metro Surge, there was typically coordination between state and federal authorities and these type of cases, not this case.

Can you talk about the trauma of your client and his cousin? They had different traumas, of course. Mr. Sosa-Sellis was shot physically, so that's an extra dimension to it. With my client, it's the trauma being branded internationally a criminal. This is somebody and somebody who violently attacked a federal officer. That never happened. And my client is doing the best he can to show that he's just the law-abiding person he's always been. What connection do you see between their case and what Trump officials said about Renee Good and Alex Prete?

The connection is this, as I said before, you follow the facts, not the story. And in this case, ultimately, the facts prevailed over the story. The story was what was perpetrated the first few days or promulgated the first few days. But I think the danger is getting the story ahead of the facts because here the story was shown to be false. And so how is Mr. Salasosa since he's been shot by ICE agents? Well, he's not my client. I represent Mr. Elhorna. But I understand all of the, in this case, Mr. Ahorn and Mr. Sososalas, they're all back home with their families.

That's Mr. Sosceles. Thanks so much for being with us. Frederick Gets, criminal defense attorney, who represents Alfredo Alejandro Alhona, one of the two Venezuelan men who were falsely accused of assaulting a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis in January. That does it for our show. A very happy birthday to Neil Shabbata. On Monday, February 23rd, Democracy Now will be celebrating our 30th anniversary at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Guests will include Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, LaSab Abu Toha, the Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa, the singer and songwriter Michael Stipe, the Jillisor. the jazz legend, Winton Marsalis, the formerly known as Eve Ensler, hooray for the riffraff,

and so many more. Juan Gonzalez will be flying in from Chicago, joining me and Nermin Sheikh and our whole Democracy Now family for the celebration. Check out DemocracyNow.org. For information and tickets, I'm Amy Goodman.