CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Legendary Civil Rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson died Tuesday at the age of 84.
Jackson also has a legacy here in Chattanooga. a city he visited many times during the Civil Rights Era.
There was one man, Johnny Holloway, that became a central part of his presence here.
He became the leader of the Chattanooga chapter of Excel PUSH, whose stated goal was to increase educational opportunities in disadvantaged communities.
Holloway recalled when Rev. Jackson established that organization, he asked, “Who’s gonna be the organizer of the chapter? All at once all the ministers in the room pointed at me, it was my first time hearing about it.”
He said that he initially met Jackson during a unionization effort at Erlanger Hospital in 1976.
Holloway said, “Somebody said we’re gonna bring Reverend Jesse Jackson if y’all don’t change up, and that just went all over the community. I said I don’t know what happened but we need to bring him.”
He would eventually go on to be his campaign manager here in Chattanooga during his run for President in 1988.
Rev. Jackson also came to Chattanooga after a riot in 1980 that started after five Ku Klux Klansman shot a group of black women on MLK Boulevard, then 9th Street.
Holloway said, “Chattanooga was the first city that sued the Klan and we didn’t get much money out of them, but we sued them and that was the foundation for a whole nationwide movement and right now to date the film on “How to Sue the Klan” just won an Emmy.”
Holloway added that Jackson was a visionary thinker, connecting the Civil Rights era to the modern era of social activism.
He said, “He was a very broad man when it came to how to move a people forward. He didn’t just focus on politics. He didn’t just work on education. He worked on the whole nine yards.”
Holloway says he would love to see Excel PUSH make a comeback.
That organization led the push for 9th Street to be renamed to MLK Boulevard.
