(Graphic Credit / UT Martin Evolving Narratives: Tennessee Initiative for Civic Engagement Facebook page)

Abby Phillip, anchor of CNN’s “News Night”, visited the University of Tennessee at Martin on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, to discuss her book “A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power,” examining pivotal chapters in the life of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Her appearance came just days after Jackson’s passing, which added a tone of reflection and urgency to the conversation.

Phillip opened by thanking university leaders, faculty and students for the invitation, noting it had been some time since she last visited Tennessee. She described the timing of her visit as “profound,” given the nation’s renewed focus on Jackson’s legacy. While many remember him as a civil rights icon and humanitarian, Phillip viewed him as part of America’s “greatest generation” of leaders who fought to make the country live up to its democratic promise.

Rather than attempting to chronicle Jackson’s entire life, Phillip explained that her book focused on his decision to enter presidential politics in the 1980s. She shared detailed stories from her research, including Jackson’s 1983 meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, with former segregationist Gov. George Wallace.

At the time, Wallace renounced his earlier racist platform but remained a controversial figure. Phillip described how Jackson intentionally sought the meeting, sitting with Wallace on the governor’s mansion porch in a quiet, largely unpublicized conversation. For Jackson, she said, the moment was not about political optics but something else instead.

“That meeting was about showing through action, not just words, that moving forward from this country’s violent racial past was necessary,” said Phillip.

Jackson believed no one was beyond redemption if there was genuine repentance. His appearance soon after at the Alabama State Capitol, the same place Wallace once declared “segregation now, segregation forever”, reinforced his message of healing and shared economic purpose.

Phillip emphasized that Jackson’s political philosophy centered on addition rather than division. He traveled extensively, from the Deep South to coal country, engaging voters across racial and geographic lines. He believed democracy required participation from everyone and that politics should be about bringing people in, not pushing them out.

She also recounted Jackson’s 1980 meeting with President Ronald Reagan. At the time, Reagan was campaigning and seeking Jackson’s endorsement. Despite sharp policy differences and controversy surrounding Reagan’s campaign stops in Mississippi, the two met in Chicago. Phillip described the encounter as a turning point for Jackson personally.

Sitting face to face with a presidential candidate, Jackson realized there was nothing inherently separating him from the highest office in the land. For a man born to a teenage mother in the segregated South and raised facing ridicule for a mild speech impediment, the moment was transformative. Phillip said Jackson left that meeting convinced that the presidency, and any aspiration, was not beyond his reach.

That belief fueled his historic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. Though he did not secure the Democratic nomination, Phillip argued that the full weight of his legacy can only be understood in hindsight. Without Jackson’s groundwork, the rise of leaders like Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and movements reshaping both major parties might not have been possible.

Phillip concluded that Jackson’s “unfinished business” lies in the reconciliation of America’s diversity with shared economic aspirations. His belief that the nation is like a quilt, distinct pieces stitched into one fabric, has remained relevant as political divisions deepen.

As students listened, Phillip left them with a challenge rooted in Jackson’s example to listen more, build broader coalitions and remember that democracy works best when it is a “game of addition, not subtraction.”