When Jesse Jackson spoke at UCLA in the '90s to bring out the student vote for a presidential election, I was a grad student there.
As his awe-inspiring speech closed, I jumped on a bench waving my hand and shouting so he could hear across the quad: “Jesse, you forgot to tell them that the people defeated David Duke” Jesse looked right at me and said, “I should make you my speech writer," and blew a kiss. I ran up to him to him: We hugged and took photos with the other student leaders.
Today, I recall the generosity of his spirit, treating me as an equal, someone like him who cares about our common future.