When Jesse Jackson (1941-2026) wrote “Gandhi plus Bose equals liberation”
American civil rights legend Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died today aged 84, had visited Netaji Bhawan in Kolkata in 2014 and left a memorable inscription, saying “Gandhi plus Bose equals Liberation”.
A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr, who had admired Mahatma Gandhi, Jackson visited the memorial to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on February 25, 2014. Writing in the visitor’s book, Jackson started off saying, “What a tour (of the museum at Netaji Bhawan).”
Professor Sumantra Bose, grandnephew of Subhas Bose, who shared the image of Jackson’s inscription with Open, said that the American politician’s handwriting was illegible because his hands were shaky and he was already unwell.
Three years later, Jackson was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which was subsequently changed to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease with similar symptoms, according to reports.
Jackson ended his note, stating: “Keep hope alive. Never surrender.”
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson was with Martin Luther King Jr on the day of the latter’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. The Associated Press had published a photo – which has now become iconic – of Martin Luther King Jr with Jackson, then 27, and others on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, the very spot King was killed by assassins a day later on April 4, 1968. King was only 39 and was in Memphis for a protest.
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Jackson, who appeared in April 5 that year on TV in clothes stained with King's blood, went on to lead African-Americans and the Civil Rights’ movement and went on to serve as a shadow senator for the District of Columbia.
Jackson later wrote about his conversations with King and other leaders. He also said that shortly before King's death, he had chided Jackson for not wearing a tie on their way to a dinner.