Feb. 24, 2026 marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Valerii Antoniuk, president of the Ukrainian Baptist Union, marked the occasion in a video message.

“Dear brothers and sisters, for four years now, our country has lived under full-scale war, and for 12 years, we have endured armed aggression by Russia against Ukraine,” Antoniuk stated in the video. 

The armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine began Feb. 20, 2014, when the Russian military entered Crimea, followed by the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine. Ukrainians managed to stop the advance and liberate part of the territory. 

The current full-scale conflict in Ukraine began Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian military forces entered the country from Belarus, Russia, and Crimea. Much of the conflict is linked to Russia-backed separatists seeking to break away from Ukrainian control with the support of the Russian Federation.

Results of the war

The conflict has resulted in the mass displacement of over 20,000 children, deaths and torture of various priests, and nearly 700 churches damaged or destroyed. 

A study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicates the number of Russian and Ukrainian troops killed, wounded, or missing during the last four years of war is on track to reach two million by this spring.

“Every day, we hear air raid sirens,” Antoniuk said in the video. “Pain, cold, and death have become daily realities. Yet, we live in a country where God continues to reveal his mercy and his power.”

Antoniuk explained how, in 2022, the world watched as Russia attempted to “swallow Ukraine whole.” And yet, Ukraine has persisted in fighting against Russia, he said. “We prayed, and we fought,” he added. 

As the first days of invasion passed, turning into weeks and months of Ukrainian resilience, “across continents, people saw how God was defending Ukraine,” Antoniuk continued. 

“Contrary to political forecasts, contrary to the enemy’s bloody ambitions, Ukraine has not been broken. The church has not fallen silent, has not stopped, and we have not surrendered,” Antoniuk said.

Ukrainian Baptists respond

Igor Bandura, vice president for international affairs with the Ukrainian Baptist Union, addressed the importance of prayer on this anniversary: “On Feb. 24, Ukraine’s National Day of Prayer, our churches will gather for special services of remembrance, lament, thanksgiving, and fervent intercession,” he said.  

“We see collective prayer as a powerful act of faith, dependence on God, and spiritual resistance, trusting him to bring justice, healing, and restoration. … Prayer is our most powerful resource and greatest comfort [during this season],” Bandura continued. 

“The devastation is profound—nearly 700 churches of all denominations, including Baptist ones, have been damaged or completely destroyed across Ukraine, with … heavy losses in occupied territories where [Christians] face persecution, forced registration under Russian control, or outright closure,” Bandura stated.

Even so, Bandura believes hope is found in Christ: “Yet, resilience flows from our unwavering trust in Christ’s ultimate victory over evil.”

Addressing Texas Baptists, Leonid Regheta—pastor of River of Life, a Ukrainian and Russian church in Plano, and chairman of Hope International Ministries—said: “On this fourth anniversary, Ukrainian church leaders want Texas Baptists to remember a basic fact: Ukraine did not choose this war.”

He urged Americans to be wary of misinformation portraying the invasion as liberation, pointing to documented accounts of deported Ukrainian children, repression in occupied regions, and the closure of evangelical congregations under Russian control. 

Regheta emphasized how hope is found in the small things, such as “in gestures of routine—marking birthdays, tending small gardens, planting potatoes, tomatoes, and beets—as people try to preserve a sense of normal life amid uncertainty.” 

Texas Baptists respond 

John Whitten, pastor of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene, spoke about his experience visiting Ukraine and how the trip shaped his perspective: “Last year, I traveled with a delegation of Texas Baptist pastors to Ukraine and met directly with officers of the Ukrainian Baptist churches.” 

“My role has been to listen, learn, and represent Texas Baptists in a posture of long-term partnership rather than distant support. Those conversations shaped how I understand the spiritual resilience of Ukrainian believers and the responsibility we carry as fellow Baptists to stand with them in this season,” Whitten continued. 

Whitten explained how the focus of Texas Baptists has shifted to steady commitment. “There is a clear recognition that this is a prolonged struggle [and] faithful presence matters. The focus has shifted toward sustainable partnerships, pastoral support, and enhancing the ministry and witness of local churches,” he said. 

“Rather than directing from afar, Texas Baptists have sought to walk alongside Ukrainian pastors as they shepherd their people under extraordinary strain. That encouragement has reinforced the church’s role as both a spiritual and civic anchor in their communities,” Whitten stated. 

“Our engagement is ultimately about defending the dignity of conscience that lies at the heart of Baptist identity,” he said. 

Whitten encouraged more Texas Baptist churches to learn about and join the Healing Path Movement, a gospel-centered movement uniting Baptists across Texas and Ukraine. 

“I want Texas Baptists to understand that Ukraine’s struggle is not only territorial or political. It is also deeply spiritual. The freedom for churches to worship, preach, and serve without coercion is at stake,” he said. 

During its regular February meeting, the Baylor University Board of Regents celebrated fundraising and graduation milestones and introduced Baylor’s plan to meet the growing workforce demand by approving a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering. 

President Linda Livingstone highlighted the Extend the Line scholarship initiative Baylor started in 2025, expressing a goal to produce $50 million in additional scholarship fundraising support by 2030. “We’re already over $100 million in that effort, [which] is fabulous news,” Livingstone said. 

Livingstone also commented on Baylor’s general fundraising growth. “This year is shaping up to be the second largest fundraising year in Baylor history,” she said. 

Baylor eclipsed its annual goal, due in large part to a $30 million gift received in January from the Moody Foundation of Galveston. 

The gift will help support scholarships, research, and academic programs in the School of Education, now known as the Moody School of Education. 

Additionally, Baylor received a $5 million Lilly Endowment grant as part of its Storytelling Initiative, and a $9.76 million Lilly Endowment grant for Truett Theological Seminary in December. 

Baylor hit a record four-year graduation rate of 77.3 percent, set in 2025 for first-year freshmen who entered Baylor in 2021. This compares to a 47.3 percent graduation rate in 2003, representing a nearly 63 percent increase. 

Regents approve increase in tuition costs 

Baylor regents approved an increase in tuition and fees for the upcoming 2026-27 academic year. Tuition will cost around $67,756 annually, an increase from $63,620 in 2025-26.

“After you account for financial aid and all of the need-based merit scholarships that we provide each year to students, … the average net out-of-pocket increase per student is expected to be around $1,978 annually,” Livingstone said. 

To assist current students, Baylor will help manage this increase in tuition and fees by increasing scholarship funding by $3.8 million, extend some form of financial aid to more than 90 percent of students, and continue both the Baylor Benefit scholarship and Extend the Line Scholarship Initiative. 

Response to BGCT annual meeting

President Livingstone responded to a question about the close vote by messengers to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Nov. 2025 to defund and to reconsider the BGCT’s relationship with Baylor. 

“We are very committed to our relationship with the BGCT. I talk to [BGCT Executive Director] Julio Guarneri regularly,” she said. 

“Obviously, the Baptists helped found Baylor back in 1845. We deeply value that relationship and continue to work very closely with folks in the convention, and obviously they work very closely with Truett Seminary,” she continued. 

“We will continue to work closely with the leadership of the BGCT, [and] we both matter a lot to Baptists in Texas, and so it’s certainly a relationship we are committed to. [We will] support one another in the work we’re doing,” she said. 

In other business, Baylor regents:

• Elected Susan “Suzii” Youngblood March to a three-year term as an alumni-elected regent. Her term will begin June 1.
• Approved Chase R. Cortner as a new first-term, non-voting student regent.
• Approved Student Regent Spencer Yim as a second-term voting student regent through 2027. 
• Elected Chris Hansen for a three-year term as faculty regent.

Based in part on reporting from Baylor University Media and Public Relations. 

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (BP)—A Mississippi pastor has become the third known candidate to be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary.

Jonathan Greer will be nominated for the office by Alabama pastor Tyler Armstrong at the 2026 SBC annual meeting in Orlando.

Greer has served as the pastor of Franklin Creek Baptist Church in Moss Point, Miss., since 2017.

Armstrong said the first time he saw Greer was from a distance at an annual meeting as Greer was asking an “informed question” from one of the microphones.

“Jonathan understands that the role of recording secretary is about faithful stewardship, not visibility,” Armstrong said, “He is careful, steady, and committed to serving the convention with integrity as an everyday Southern Baptist pastor who values clarity, accountability, and cooperation.”

He added Greer cares about sustaining the work of Southern Baptists.

“I’ve come to see that he deeply cares about our convention as a pastor of a normative-sized church in Mississippi,” Armstrong told Baptist Press.

He said when he thinks about Greer’s work as a pastor, he believes Greer’s public ministry “reflects a private life shaped by faithfulness.”

Franklin Creek Baptist Church reported total receipts of $116,000 in 2025 and gave $2,970.44 (2.6 percent) through the Cooperative Program, according to the annual church profile. They averaged 40 people in worship attendance and celebrated five baptisms.

Greer holds a bachelor’s degree from Blue Mountain College, now Blue Mountain Christian University.

He has served churches in Mississippi and Alabama. He has served on the SBC Registration Committee, the SBC Tellers Committee, and the SBC Committee on Committees.

He is serving his second term as moderator of the Jackson County Baptist Association and leads the Church Development Team.

“In every role he has held, he represents the normative pastor and church that form the backbone of our convention,” Armstrong told BP.

“Jonathan leads his home with attentiveness and sacrificial love,” he said. “He prioritizes his wife and children, ensuring that ministry flows from a healthy household.”

The SBC recording secretary oversees each year’s SBC Annual and serves as a member of the SBC Executive Committee. The position is elected each year but has no term limits.

Greer and his wife Hannah have been married nearly 14 years and have three children, Josiah, Levi and Ruth.

The 2026 SBC annual meeting is set for June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Jeff Dixon, a retired educator and football coach, credits his Christian faith with shaping his approach to coaching and mentoring young athletes.

Dixon, who coached for 39 years at several Texas high schools, said his relationship with Jesus transformed coaching from a competitive pursuit into a ministry focused on guiding students toward personal growth and faith.

A 1987 graduate of Howard Payne University, Dixon said his Christian faith deepened during his college years and continued to grow through relationships with other coaches who were bold about their beliefs.

“I wanted to be an impact on the community, not just for wins and losses, but I wanted to impact a community for his kingdom,” Dixon said.

Now serving as a deacon and youth minister at First Baptist Church in Alvarado, Dixon said he continues to pray the Lord will use him to impact the community and the kingdom.

Reflecting on his time on the field

Dixon reflected on his time on the field, including mentoring Anansi Flaherty, who later gave his life to Christ while incarcerated.

Flaherty, a backup fullback on Katy High School’s 2000 state championship team who later made headlines in a tragic case after killing his mother, gave his life to Christ in prison and was baptized Dec. 19, 2024.

“When you invest in people and you know they’re in trouble, it’s heartbreaking,” Dixon said. “When you’re in the coaching world and you have a position with a group of kids, they’re yours. You build a relationship with them. And he was one of mine.”

“I got into coaching because I love the sport,” Dixon said. “There’s way more to teaching and coaching than the competitive arena. I saw a side of it with adolescence that I never really recognized before—young boys who didn’t have a dad or parenting.”

Mentoring from leaders

Just as those young boys needed mentoring, Dixon said he received mentoring from Christian men throughout his career, including coaches and administrators who modeled bold leadership.

Dixon said watching those men live out their faith in the public arena made him bolder about sharing his own faith.

He also highlighted his involvement in Bible-based programs such as Coaches Outreach, a ministry providing studies tailored to the lives of coaches and their spouses.

“We go through a 12-week Bible study. It happens to be a Coaches Outreach Bible study. We’re talking about Jesus and we’re talking about the gospel,” Dixon said.

Through these experiences, Dixon said he fostered long-term relationships with players, guiding them in both sports and faith.

“When it comes to a coach’s impact, you’re going to do one of two things: You’re going to impact them for the kingdom or you’re not,” Dixon said.

“What a platform, as a Christian coach, to be an influencer of thousands of people who directly come in contact with you. That’s a major call.”

Dixon said he quickly realized coaching was more than a profession.

“It’s a calling. It’s not a job,” he said. “You can’t tackle coaching with that kind of mentality.”

Though he began coaching out of a love for competition, he said within a year he understood something bigger was at stake.

“What matters is how many you have impacted for his kingdom,” Dixon said. “The Christ impact is eternal. If I’ve been able to direct those I coach toward a personal relationship with the Savior of the world, then praise God.”

Dixon said a single coach over a 20-year career may come into contact with thousands of students and their families.

“What a platform to represent Jesus,” he said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Denny Burk has announced plans to nominate Travis Kerns, a South Carolina associational mission strategist for the Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary at the 2026 SBC annual meeting.

“Travis’ devoted service at various levels of Southern Baptist life is extraordinary,” Burk told Baptist Press.

“Not only has he pastored a Southern Baptist congregation, but he has also served with distinction at several SBC entities.”

Burk said he has known Kerns since 2008 when they both served at Southern Seminary.

Kerns is the associational mission strategist for the Three Rivers Baptist Association in Taylors, S.C., and a member of First Baptist Church of Greer, S.C.

“His passion to reach the lost for Christ and his commitment to the SBC and her work has been unparalleled,” Burk said.

“He has been a devoted husband, a faithful father, and a committed churchman. I couldn’t be more enthusiastic to nominate him for recording secretary this June in Orlando.”

First Baptist Church of Greer reported total receipts of $1,478,013 and gave $102,978.90 (7 percent) through the Cooperative Program in 2025.

It also gave $35,450.53 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $6,347.80 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. The church averaged 500 in attendance and celebrated 16 baptisms.

In addition to teaching at Southern Seminary, Kerns has also taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and North Greenville University.

He was a Send City missionary in Salt Lake City with the North American Mission Board.

Kerns served as an associate pastor in Greenville, S.C., for three years in the early 2000s.

He holds a Ph.D. and Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts from North Greenville University.

“His training as an academic and as an author have prepared him for the duties of recording secretary, which includes overseeing the publication of the SBC Annual,” Burk said.

The office of recording secretary is elected each year but has no term limits.

He has served on the SBC Credentials Committee, the Committee on Committees and, in 2023, the Cooperation Study Group.

In addition, he has served on numerous local, state, and national boards.

He and his wife Staci have been married for more than 26 years and have one son, Jeremiah. Staci’s father has pastored Southern Baptist churches for more than three decades.

The 2026 SBC annual meeting is set for June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

First Baptist Church of Muleshoe celebrated the completion of a $650,000 renovation project on its sanctuary. The east and west entryways and a nursery were included in the project. The sanctuary can seat 466 people. Todd Still, dean of Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, preached a dedication sermon during Sunday morning worship. Stacy Conner is pastor.

Green Acres Baptist Church gathered more than 1,000 cans of food to donate to families in need during its Souper Bowl Food Drive. High school students worked together to load the items onto the St. Paul Children’s Services truck.

Larry Tarver is retiring as director of missions of the Abilene-Callahan Baptist Association, where he has served since July 2017.

Felipe García, longtime pastor and prominent community member, died Jan. 28. He was 79. García was born Aug. 23, 1946, in Tamazunchale S.L.P., Mexico, to Francisco A. García Lazaro and Juana Lovaton Villedas. He attended the Mexican Baptist Bible Institute in San Antonio, where he graduated in 1974. He furthered his education at the Rio Grande Baptist Association, receiving his Pastoral Ministries Diploma in 1979. His first pastorate was Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida from 1974 to 1977 in Liberal, Kan. He then was pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Nueva Jerusalem in San Benito, Texas, until 1982. He later served with Buckner Baptist Benevolence in Brownsville and Donna, before serving as pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana in Taylor for over 16 years. In later years, he led Iglesia Bautista Peniel in Eagle Pass and Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva in Austin. His final pastoral role was at Iglesia Bautista Jarrell in Jarrell, where he served until 2026. Beyond the pulpit, García loved serving his community. He worked as a bus driver for Taylor Independent School District, was employed at Taylor Bedding Company, and offered spiritual guidance as a chaplain at Marketplace Chaplaincy and an alcohol and drug treatment center in Georgetown. García is survived by his wife, Maria Guadalupe García; his mother, Juana Lovaton Villedas; his siblings, Isidra, Joaquina, Elena, Concepción, and Fabian García Lovaton; his children, Carlos García, Noemi Moya and husband Martin Moya, and Rosa Melinda García; and his grandchildren, Devin and Ethan Pitts. He is preceded in death by his first spouse, Eunice Saenz García, and his father, Francisco A. García Lazaro. 

Brian Guenther and his family were featured on a “Family Feud” episode that aired Tuesday, Feb. 17. Guenther is president of San Marcos Baptist Academy, a private Christian, coeducational, college preparatory school in San Marcos. 

Guenther’s family was invited to the show after his daughter Grace, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor student, applied online. “Two weeks later, they contacted us for a tryout,” he said. 

“Two weeks after the tryout, we got a call saying they’re ready to schedule us for the show,” he continued. “We were scheduled to film in April of last year. It’s taken almost a year for the show to actually make it to air.” 

Brian, his wife Christy, their identical twin daughters Grace and Faith, and their adopted son Wilson participated in the episode.

Wilson’s social media presence may have helped the Guenthers’ application, Christy said. Wilson has over 460,000 followers on his Facebook page and over 34,000 followers on YouTube.

The filming experience

During filming, the Guenthers met seven other families who were backstage together. “We encouraged each other. We all shared the same makeup and hair people and had the same producers working with us,” he said. 

“The filming experience was another level, because we got to interact with [the host] Steve Harvey,” Brian continued. 

Filming takes two hours, but each televised episode is only 22 minutes, meaning much of the comedic bits are cut out, he explained. “[Steve] would go into a comedy episode of something, and those are things only the live audience gets to see.” 

“[Steve’s] personality is so lively and vibrant,” Christy said. “He’s so funny. I felt like he was really down to earth and very personable. He kept coming over to our family and saying: ‘Come on. Come through family. You can do this.’ He seemed like a really good guy.”

Window to share faith

The “Family Feud” filming gave the Guenthers unique opportunities to share their faith with others. “It was really nice getting to meet other families from … all over. It was fun hearing different family stories and sharing our faith with other families. It was a great experience,” Brian said.

The Cornelius family, who participated in a separate episode, shared faith in common with the Guenthers. 

“He and his wife pastor a church. … It was neat being able to relate. We talked for a long time. What we had in common was our faith, and that made [the experience] so great,” Brian said.

Experience on secular television 

Brian described how nervous he felt being on a game show and not knowing what questions may be asked: “We were nervous in the beginning. … We [prayed] the Lord would protect us from something that would embarrass our school or family.” 

During the episode, a question about a stripper was raised. “When that question got asked, I was like, ‘Oh, no. This is what I prayed against,’” Christy said. “I was so thankful the question came to me and not one of my girls.” 

When asked how the family balances public visibility with humility and leadership, Brian emphasized the importance of maintaining your life in a respectful manner: “With Wilson’s social media following, we get recognized in a lot of places.”

“[When] we went to the Baptist World Alliance Congress in Australia last summer, we were on the streets of Australia and got recognized by someone who asked for a photo,” he said.

“We carry it with a lot of humility, because there’s no way that’s us. We are not rich because of it. We don’t make money [from fame.] That’s one way the Lord has protected our family from fame going to our heads. We don’t make a big deal of it around other people,” Brian continued.

“In fact, at the school, we didn’t talk much about the show. We had a watch party, but we didn’t do it through school communications,” Brian added. 

“We try to [carry] our life in a humble and respectful way to the location we’re in. We’re here to serve and work at the school. … This is where God has called us to be.” 

The importance of family and faith 

When asked if he would ever make a return to television, Brian highlighted doing things together as a family as “one of our family values. We’ve always involved our kids in ministry. … So, when it came time for this show, it was a no-brainer for us to be able to do that together.” 

“We absolutely would do something like that again, … and we did. Shortly after Family Feud, we were invited to film a reality TV show in London. That did come through Wilson’s social media. … One of his videos got 44 million views or something like that,” Brian continued.

“For that show, we had to write into the contract that it’s all of us, or none of us. [The show] wanted me, Christy, and Wilson,” Brian added.

He explained how arrangements were made to have all members of the family present for filming. Another stipulation was the family had to share their faith without compromising. 

“We are not going to hide our faith. If you’re going to [film] a reality TV show about us, we will talk about our faith,” Christy said. The show involved swapping lives with another family, potentially allowing for differences in belief to be promoted. 

“We [said] we don’t want to practice a different religion. They honored that, and they highlighted our faith really well. They honored our school, and they honored our faith.”

Florida pastor Dean Inserra has announced his intention to nominate Texas pastor George Schroeder as Southern Baptist Convention recording secretary at the 2026 SBC annual meeting.

Schroeder serves as lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Fairfield, Texas. “George Schroeder has been a friend since before he left a prominent career in sports journalism to follow the call upon his life to enter into full-time ministry,” Inserra told Baptist Press. 

Schroeder was a longtime and well-respected sports journalist with publications such as USA Today, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also hosted various shows on SiriusXM radio.

“George would be a fantastic recording secretary coming from his sports journalism career at the highest level, which included covering college sports,” Inserra said.

In 2020, Schroeder left sports journalism to pursue a call to ministry. His first stop was as associate vice president for convention news at the SBC Executive Committee, where he served as Baptist Press editor.

He left the Executive Committee in 2021 to become associate vice president for institutional relations at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and to focus on completing his seminary education.

In addition to a master’s degree from Southwestern Seminary, he also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.

According to First Baptist Fairfield, the church received $716,398.22 in undesignated receipts in 2025 and gave $35,820 (5 percent) through the Cooperative Program. It averaged 160 in worship attendance and baptized three people. The church’s most recent Lottie Moon Christmas Offering total is $3,110 and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering total is $2,315.

Inserra said Schroeder has led the church to “double their CP giving since he arrived in 2024.”

Schroeder previously served at Storyline Church in Arvada, Colo. “George understands deadlines and details, which is essential for a recording secretary,” Inserra said.

The SBC recording secretary oversees each year’s SBC Annual and also serves as a member of the SBC Executive Committee. The position is elected each year but has no term limits.

Inserra added that Schroeder’s family has deep roots in the SBC. “He also knows, loves, and is called to Southern Baptist life. His grandfather led the SBC’s Brotherhood Commission, so it might be in his blood.”

Schroeder and his wife Shannon have been married for 29 years. They have two adult children, Elizabeth and George, and Christopher, a heart and kidney transplant survivor, still at home.

The SBC annual meeting is June 9-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

Sarah Bevers, long-time member of First Baptist Church in Chappell Hill who has served in the church’s children’s area and women’s ministry, was called on Feb. 1, to be the church’s new children’s director.

Dallas Baptist University student Emma Dilley saved a man’s life after performing CPR on him. He was suffering from an asthma attack.

According to KDFW-TV in Dallas, Dilley and her friends were driving through the Oak Lawn neighborhood in Dallas the night of Feb. 10.

A man was lying on the street with a crowd of people surrounding him at the intersection of Lemmon Avenue and Douglas Avenue.

“I figured I needed to put others before myself, and so I just hopped out and performed CPR,” Dilley said. “I got on the scene and checked his pulse, and it was very faint.”

Dilley performed CPR on the man until emergency personnel arrived.

Dilley told FOX 4 she’s known CPR since she was a high school freshman.

“I’m just glad I was there to help and be there for him,” Dilley said.

The man was revived and taken to a local hospital by Dallas Fire and Rescue.

Dilley is a pre-med biology major at DBU and says she wants to work as a doctor in the neonatal intensive care unit.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited for length.

(RNS)—The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., a longtime civil rights activist who twice vied for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s, died Feb. 17 at age 84.

A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a social justice organization, but he intertwined his advocacy with politics and diplomacy, serving as a special envoy to Africa for the Clinton administration and as a shadow senator representing Washington, D.C., in the 1990s.

Before ill health prevented him, Jackson continued to appear on the front lines of causes for which he was long an advocate. In the summer of 2021, he was arrested twice outside the U.S. Senate at rallies urging passage of voting rights legislation, led by the Poor People’s Campaign, a revival of King’s anti-poverty movement.

As he had for decades, Jackson led the protesters in chanting one of his trademark phrases: “I am! Somebody! I may be poor! But I am! Somebody! I may be unemployed! But I am! Somebody! I may not have health care! But I am! Somebody! Respect me! Protect me! Elect me! I am! God’s child!”

Jackson had long lived with Parkinson’s disease, but it had been announced in November that he had suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurodegenerative condition, for more than a decade.

Jackson as mentor

At the time of Jackson’s November hospitalization, the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, called Jackson “a mentor, a friend, and a brother for more than 55 years.”

In a statement to The Associated Press released Feb. 17, Sharpton wrote that Jackson “taught me that protest must have purpose, that faith must have feet, and that justice is not seasonal, it is daily work,” adding Jackson taught “trying is as important as triumph. That you do not wait for the dream to come true; you work to make it real.”

In 2023, Jackson announced he was stepping down from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which he had led for more than 50 years. He was briefly succeeded by Dallas pastor Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, but Haynes resigned the position within months.

Yusef Jackson, one of Jackson’s sons, currently serves as chief operating officer of Rainbow PUSH, which is known for its work on social justice, peace, and creating more equitable educational and economic opportunities.

In Keeping Hope Alive, a 2020 collection of his sermons and speeches, Jackson said he was inspired to start using the “somebody” phrase after reading theologian Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited.

Jackson recalled the book as he sought to lift the spirits of demonstrators camping out on Washington’s National Mall in rainy conditions during the original Poor People’s Campaign shortly after King’s assassination.

“I’ve been all around the world, and it resonates as much as it did 50 years ago; all around, in every language, people struggle for a sense of somebodiness—marginalized people struggling to find some hope for oxygen, something that helps you to breathe,” he wrote. “It never grows old.”

Hopeful social activism

Though many may have thought of Jackson as more of a politician than a minister, the Rev. Valerie Bridgeman, dean of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, said he was both. “I don’t think Jesse Jackson saw his political life as something different from his call from God as a preacher,” she told Religion News Service in a 2021 interview.

That dual calling was exemplified by phrases he used as miniature sermons. “‘Keep hope alive’ certainly is an encapsulation of the gospel,” said Bridgeman, who also is a scholar of homiletics, or the art of preaching. “So is ‘I am somebody.’”

CNN anchor Abby Phillip, author of the 2025 book A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power, described Jackson’s rhetorical prowess as embodying a sense of “moral grounding” during his runs for president.

“One of the things that made Jesse Jackson such a powerful speaker was not just that he used rhymes and alliteration,” she said at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Nov. 15. “He spoke through religious texts and spoke about a moral premise for his candidacy.”

Over the last dozen years, Jackson continued his activism, speaking out against police killings of Black people, joining the centennial commemoration of the Tulsa race massacre, and marching for peace in a Chicago community wracked by gun violence.

In a Feb. 17 statement, Rev. William Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign, who met Jackson as a college student, said: “Jesse Jackson was a gift from God and a witness that God exists in the ways he cared for and lifted all people, the way he called forth a rainbow coalition of people to challenge economic and social inequality from the pulpit to a historic presidential run, the way he dared to keep hope alive whenever the nation struggled with being who she says she is and yet ought to be.”

Early days in activism

Jackson, a native of Greenville, S.C., first made headlines in the summer of 1960 as one of the “Greenville Eight,” a group of Black students who sought to desegregate the town’s public library on the advice of a minister and executive of the state NAACP.

Entering the library after being told to leave, the students were arrested and released on $30 bond, according to American Libraries magazine.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University, he interrupted his studies at Chicago Theological Seminary in 1965 to start working with King in the Civil Rights Movement.

Ordained a Baptist minister in 1968, Jackson earned his Master of Divinity degree from Chicago Theological Seminary decades later.

In 1966, Jackson was appointed by King to lead the Chicago expansion of Operation Breadbasket, an economic development program of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference that increased job opportunities for African Americans. Jackson was appointed its national director the next year.

Jackson founded the economic empowerment organization Operation PUSH—People United to Serve Humanity—in 1971 in Chicago and a Washington-based social justice group, National Rainbow Coalition, in 1984. The two merged in 1996 as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Jackson in politics

When he ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1984, in a pioneering grassroots campaign bolstered by the support of Black churches, he drew 3.3 million votes, which he more than doubled in his 1988 run. But some of his positions, including his advocacy for an independent state for Palestinians, were out of step with the Democratic establishment.

He ignited controversy in his first campaign when he was caught on a microphone referring to New York City as “Hymietown,” and though he later apologized, the remark strained relations with Jews.

In the 2000s, Jackson’s diplomacy extended to the Baptist world. He was a prominent participant in a historic meeting of four Black Baptist denominations: the Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention of America, National Missionary Baptist Convention of America and National Baptist Convention, USA.

Over 60 years of activism, Jackson was nearly ubiquitous at times, sometimes bringing prayer into settings that were primarily secular.

In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Controversy and hope

The next year, Jackson made headlines for a more controversial reason. In a statement asking for forgiveness and prayers, he admitted to an extramarital affair that led to the birth of a daughter. “I fully accept responsibility, and I am truly sorry for my actions,” he said.

As he concluded a speech to the annual conference of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2002, Jackson recalled King, his mentor who was a proponent of faith in action, as he urged continuing work on equal access to voting, education, and wealth.

“We need to have the full assurance that God did not bring us this far to leave us now,” he said in the speech included in Keeping Hope Alive. “So, we march for healing and hope. God will forgive our sins and heal our land. Keep hope alive.”