Civil rights leader, two-time Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. shadow senator for the District of Columbia the Rev. Jesse Jackson passed away on Feb. 17, 2026.
Jackson visited Kent State several times. He attended the first May 4 Commemoration in 1971 and returned for the Commemoration in 1974.
In February 1987, he spoke at the Memorial Gymnasium (now the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center) as part of the university’s observation of Black History Month. His visit was sponsored by Kent State’s Black United Students, the All-Campus Programming Board, Kent Interhall Council and the May 4 Task Force. Jackson was also a long-time associate of Ron Daniels, Ph.D., who was then an associate professor in Kent State’s Department of Pan-African Studies (now the Department of Africana Studies).
In the late 1990s, Jackson was invited to Kent State University at Stark as part of its Featured Speaker Series. Campus administrators were uncertain that Jackson would be able to appear on the scheduled date as he had just been released from jail for a protest-related arrest in Chicago the night before.
He arrived on time, and on Feb. 11, 1997, Jackson delivered an address on racial unity and the integration of Black history to a larger-than-expected group of more than 600 members of the Kent State community and representatives of the media in the Stark Campus’ field house.
Want to see YOUR photos in “IN A FLASH?†Submit your Kent State-related photos to InAFlash@kent.edu and you may see them in a future Kent State Today post. Photos should be framed -horizontally- and include a brief description of what’s happening in the photo along with when and where it was taken.
