Jesse Jackson reflects on Martin Luther King's legacy 50 years after his assassination

For U.S. civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, the wounds from Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination are as fresh today as they were on the day it happened nearly five decades ago, on April 4, 1968.

Jackson told The National's Rosemary Barton that he's haunted by that moment, especially when he travels to Memphis, Tenn., where it happened.

"It was an awfully tragic moment, " he said. "The scab comes off and the sore is still raw."

Watch the fullinterview with Rosemary Barton on The National: Sunday, April 1, at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Early activism

Jackson became King's protege in the civil rights struggle in the early 1960s. But his activism began early in life.

Born in Greenville, S.C., Jackson grew up with segregation and was arrested in 1960 for entering a whites-only public library.

He told CBC News back in 1988 that growing up in that environment lit the fire of his activism.

"Suffice it to say, I grew up under the laws of apartheid in this country, lived under racial segregation, an environment that fostered low expectations," he said.

"Something told me I could make a difference."

By 1965, Jackson threw himself into King's movement, marching with him at key moments, including the historical march in Selma, Ala., to demonstrate the lack of voting rights for African-Americans.

Following King's death, Jackson forged his own path in the civil rights movement, eventually creating the Rainbow-Push Coalition, an organization dedicated to social justice. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968.

Power to vote

Providing black Americans with greater visibility in electoral politics has long been a theme in Jackson's career.

He ran for president as a Democrat twice in 1984, and again in 1988, where he won sevenmillion votes and finished second to the eventual candidate Michael Dukakis.

Jackson says the power to vote is one of King's key legacies for people seeking social justice both in his lifetime and today.

"He bequeathed to us the right to vote which we never did have," he said.

"At that time blacks couldn't vote for 85 years, 18-year-olds couldn't vote but that became a new force in American politics."

Jackson told The National he sees the endurance of that legacy in the activism of students who organized and participated in the March for Our Lives, protesting the NRA and pushing for stricter gun laws in the wake of the Parkland Florida school shooting.

"In some sense these kids are saying, 'Hands up, don't shoot vote,'" he said.

"Today we have fourmillion high school seniors who can register to vote...we're not just marching in the streets, we're marching to the polls."

Jackson himself has persisted with his activism despite some stumbles, including accusations of anti-Semitism for remarks he made during his 1984 presidential campaign.

Jesse Jackson explains what modern activism learned from MLK

7 years ago

Duration 0:54

U.S. civil rights icon Jesse Jackson explains what lessons activists have learned from Martin Luther King Jr.

He also faced personal controversy when he admitted to fathering a child outside his marriage in 2001.

Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in August 2017, but continues to speak out on issues such as the killings of unarmed black men by police and the widening gap between the rich and poor in America.

Jackson draws a line between the trauma of King's life and death and the election of Barack Obama 40 years later.

"One bullet can't stop a movement. It was 40 years in the wilderness, but we never stopped working, we never stopped raising our voices and building coalitions," he said.

"[King] left us a legacy to fight back and we're still fighting."