The passing of Jesse Jackson has prompted tributes across the country – but in Greensboro, it’s also personal.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said Jackson wasn’t just a national civil rights icon to him. He was a political teacher who shaped the course of his life.

“He was my mentor, friend and someone that I really took my training from,” Alston said this week. “Him and I were personal friends. He’s the one who really taught me the do’s and don’ts sometimes on the political perspective – what to say and what not to say.”

Alston said Jackson taught him something that’s stuck with him for more than 30 years.

“He said sometimes you have to be an agitator and sometimes you have to be a mediator – and you have to know how to do both,” Alston said. “That’s what he taught me 30 years ago.”

Jackson’s connection to Greensboro runs deep: He frequently visited the city, especially around February 1 – the anniversary of the 1960 Woolworth sit-ins that led to the founding of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, which Alston co-founded.

“Every February 1st he would always be in Greensboro,” Alston said. “He’d come to the museum and let me know if there was anything I needed him to do. I’d tell him, ‘Just show up,’ and he’d put it on his schedule.”

According to Alston, Jackson never failed to stop by the museum when he was in town. He would spend time in the lobby talking with visitors, especially during the busy anniversary week.

“When we opened up that museum, he was at that museum,” Alston said. “He loved Greensboro. He loved what we’ve done with the Civil Rights Museum.”

Alston added that Jackson was always welcome at the historic Woolworth lunch counter inside the museum.

Museum leaders are picky about who’s allowed to sit at the lunch counter seats in the museum.

“Anytime he wanted to sit at the lunch counter, he could,” Alston said. “He was just like the Greensboro Four to me.”

Jackson’s ties to the civil rights movement predate his friendship with Alston. He worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was present in Memphis in April 1968 when King was assassinated.

“He was back there with King every step of the way,” Alston said. “He was on the platform at the hotel where King was assassinated.”

King’s death deeply influenced Alston, who was about 10 years old at the time.

“That affected me for the rest of my life,” he said. “I said back then, I’m going to be the next Martin Luther King Jr. That’s what I dedicated my life to – trying to help people.”

Alston first met Jackson around 1990 after being appointed to the national board of trustees of the NAACP in 1989. Alston served on that board for 18 years. The trustees were responsible for raising $8 million to $10 million annually for the organization.

“When I first got on there in ’89, then went to the national convention in 1990, that’s when I first met Jesse Jackson,” Alston said.

Over the years, the two remained in contact.

Alston said he would occasionally reach out to Jackson when he needed help making connections.

“Every now and then when I needed somebody that he knew, he would call them for me,” Alston said.

Jackson also attended a Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting during a Greensboro visit.

Last week on Thursday, Feb. 19, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution honoring Jackson’s life and legacy. The board also held a moment of silence and showed a video of a short speech Jackson delivered to the commissioners during a previous visit to the county.

For Alston, Jackson’s national stature never diminished the personal bond.

“There’s been times when he came to Greensboro and was going someplace, I’d be the one to take him to the airport,” Alston said. “If he wanted to meet certain people, I’d take him around.”

Alston recalled one visit in 2018 when Jackson asked him to stop at a Cracker Barrel on Wendover Avenue on the way to the airport. The two, along with a staff member from Jackson’s organization, sat down to eat as patrons quietly took notice.

“Everybody started whispering,” Alston said. “Then the manager came out and started taking pictures.”

Jackson posed with many of the staff and customers who wanted to preserve the memory.

For Alston, those memories underscore that Jackson’s legacy isn’t just national – it’s woven into Greensboro’s modern history and into his own journey in public life.

Alston said, “Even though there were others around King – John Lewis, Andrew Young and all of them – Jesse Jackson is the one that really came in and taught me a lot.”

With Jackson now gone, Alston said the lessons remain.

“We can’t be afraid to do what we know we have to do,” he said, reflecting on both civil rights leadership and his current role in county government. “That’s what I try to carry forward.”

In Greensboro, the connection between King, Jackson and Alston forms a living thread – from the 1960 sit-ins, to the creation of the Civil Rights Museum, to the county commissioners meeting room in the Old Guilford County Court House where Jackson once spoke.

For Alston, it’s never been abstract history.

“It affected me for the rest of my life

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