The Civil Rights and Voting Rights activism of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson is known worldwide. In the 1980s, he is credited with significantly increasing Black voter turnout and getting young people to the polls.
Jackson’s political activism blossomed early while a student at North Carolina A&T State University in the 1960s. He was a football star and student body president. By the 1970s, a “Rainbow” of Americans knew his name.
“I may be uneducated, but I am Somebody!” Jackson would scream to the crowd. “I am Somebody! Right on!”
Jackson frequently visited the campuses of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, like North Carolina A&T, during his run for President in 1984 and 1988. In 1989, he played himself on the fictitious HBCU, Hillman College, on the hit NBC television show, “A Different World.”
“I may have been born in the slums, but the slum was not born in me!” said Jackson. “Hands that once picked cotton can now pick presidents. You want to ‘Free Mandela’ and free South Africa, Let’s vote about it!”
Olu Rouse is a student activist at North Carolina A&T. In the spirit of Jesse Jackson, Rouse and at team of students have spent 2026 fighting to keep a longtime polling place on campus.
“Part of everything we’re doing today is to get these polling sites back,” Rouse said in a documentary produced in partnership with Democracy North Carolina.
“Aggie pride!” students chanted as they marched to an off-campus voting site. “We have to show them that we are going to vote and that we value our polling site,” said Rouse.
Due South’s Leoneda Inge visited Rouse and student activist Shia Rozier at NC A&T in Greensboro. They are spearheading the fight against their local and state Boards of Election to return future primary election voting to Dudley Hall.
This is a partial transcription of their conversation.
Rouse: I would say that, yes, the decisions of both the Guilford Board of Elections and the state Board of Elections is very disheartening for students and going forward, we’re looking towards November. I think we are hopeful in still trying to get our polling site back. I think part of that hope is seeing all the support that we’ve gotten from our movement in the last few months.
Inge: Were you shocked by all that support?
Rouse: Yes, I would say, we have kind of done stuff like this before and it never received such media attention.
Inge: When you say, ‘Stuff like this before,’ when it comes to advocacy and voting?
Rouse: Yes. This isn’t the first time that A&T has had to like, advocate for our polling site. Typically, it’s been like every single year we have to go to at least, the Guilford County Board of Elections and advocate there. I thin the year before, 2023, we decided to go to the State Board of Elections too. And thankfully at that time, we were able to get it. But this time, of course, we were not able to get it.
Inge: So, why do you think you have to still keep fighting the way that you’re doing right now, when it comes to voting. We thought it was our right, right?
Rozier: Right! What it comes down to really, politically, is some differences they made through the General Assembly. They changed the appointment power of the Board of Elections from the Governor to the State Auditor. So they went past the Department of Justice, the State Attorney, all of that, to go down to the State Auditor, all for some, I would say some partisan reasons. And that’s how we ended up here this time.
As you say, we think, voting is our right. It was really crazy going to that first Board of Elections meeting. And for the board chair to sit in front of us and say, you have some rights in this world. You have constitutional rights, like the right to religion, right to press, voting is not one of those rights. Voting is a privilege, which is really crazy. We have like three, four amendments that affirm that voting is a Constitutional right.
Inge: Have either one of you, going by your age, ever gotten a chance to vote on this campus?
Rouse: Yes. My first time voting was on this campus, in the 2024 Presidential Election Primary. I remember the night before, I spent a few hours trying to research the different candidates and figure out who I was going to vote for. It was really an exciting thing. And I got to cast my ballot for the first time in Dudley. So, I think, part of that is what motivates me so much to fight for our polling site and try to protect this access for students.
Inge: I’m thinking about Jesse Jackson. How does it feel to be on this campus now, knowing that history and especially what Jesse Jackson fought and stood for?
Rozier: I think when it comes to being at A&T that the legacy of civic engagement is just a given. I personally chose A&T because of the voting records and the civic engagement legacy. So, when it comes to things like this coming up and political movement, as hard as it is, it doesn’t really feel like it’s a choice, but it’s a given. It’s the legacy that you are supposed to carry on, from Jesse Jackson to the ‘A&T Four,’ you see how many people picked up the call before you. You do it in their honor. You do it because they set that standard.
So, it’s not like me and Olu ever sat around and were like, should we do it? Should we protest? It was, how do we make it happen, because that’s what we have seen modeled for us in the history of A&T.
You can hear more “HBCU 101” and the legacy of Jesse Jackson at duesouthradio.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
