Jesse Jackson proclaimed we were ‘somebody.’ New generation of youth could use a reminder

This is an opinion column.

I am Somebody!

I am Somebody!

I may be poor, but I am Somebody.

I may be young, but I am Somebody.

I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody. I may be small, but I am Somebody.

I may have made mistakes, but I am ….

I was Somebody. I was Roy and Ida Mae’s oldest son, Jimmy’s big brother. I was a nephew, a grandson. I was a friend, a schoolmate. I was Mrs. Fannie Hill’s annoyingly curious Sunday School student. I was the pastor’s son’s cutup friend.

I was Somebody, growing up on the north side — the Black side — of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Across the tracks.

Over there, we were all Somebody, no matter what they thought on the other side — as the fiery young civil rights leader extolled us. We were, as Rev. Jesse Jackson proclaimed in the early 1960s, Somebody.

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