Press Releases

STATEMENT FROM REV. AL SHARPTON ON THE PASSING OF REV. JESSE JACKSON’S MOTHER, HELEN BURNS-JACKSON, A MATRIARCH IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

STATEMENT FROM REV. AL SHARPTON ON THE PASSING OF REV. JESSE JACKSON’S MOTHER, HELEN BURNS-JACKSON, A MATRIARCH IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

New York, NY (September 7, 2015)—“The passing of Helen Burns-Jackson is a loss to all of us who grew up under the mentorship of her son Rev. Jesse Jackson and experienced the overriding encouragement of Helen Jackson. She was undoubtedly a deeply spiritual and compassionate woman and a freedom fighter in her own right. I have known her since I was 13-years-old as her son’s youth director in New York, and as I grew in age we never lost contact and she never stopped encouraging and advising those of us in the civil rights movement. She was the Matriarch of the movement in the 70’s and 80’s until now. I visited her with Rev. Jackson last Monday in the hospital and saw her weakening condition but that does not lessen my sense of loss upon hearing of her transition. May she rest in Peace.”

Rev. Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network