Jesse Jackson's message to Merseyside

Dec 2 2008 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

When opportunity does come, seize the moment

HIS tear-stained face during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech will go down as one of the enduring images from the recent US presidential elections.

Last night the Rev Jesse Jackson – who, as the first black US presidential candidate, blazed a trail for Obama in 2008 – spoke publicly about the momentous events of the past few weeks when he delivered a public lecture and received an honorary fellowship at Edge Hill University near Ormskirk.

Mr Jackson said Obama’s victory was the fulfilment of the dreams of civil rights crusaders such as Martin Luther King, but said the new president faced a series of tough challenges – including poverty, recession, and the scourge of drugs and violence in the US.

Speaking about why he was moved to tears following the election of Barack Obama, Mr Jackson said: “It was the sheer joy of the moment.

“There was a sense of global hope in the air. It was so much like an emancipation, like the first Christmas.”

During his visit to the region yesterday, Mr Jackson met Gee Walker, whose teenage son Anthony was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Huyton in 2005.

The civil rights leader spoke about the political representation of ethnic minorities in the UK.