Josh Harrison '24 Meets, Gets Retweet from Rev. Jesse Jackson

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On the cusp of Black History Month, a Greenie found himself sitting across the breakfast table from a living legend in the Civil Rights Movement.

Christ School sophomore Josh Harrison ’24 was able to meet and converse with Rev. Jesse Jackson last weekend in Greenville, S.C., through a couple family connections.

One of Josh’s uncles was a classmate and sports teammate to Jackson at Sterling High in Greenville. And Josh said that one of his father’s friends is currently an assistant to Jackson.

Jackson was back in Greenville for the filming of a documentary about his life.

“It was great to meet someone that impactful in U.S. history, especially around Black History Month, and to even be complimented by him on the good manners I displayed,” Josh said.

Josh is from the Upstate South Carolina area and a straight-A student who showed great potential in his first-ever season of high school football last fall, playing linebacker and tight end for the Greenies. He received his first Division I scholarship offer from South Carolina State University in January.

Jackson has a background in football as well (he was a quarterback in high school), and it was after his college transfer to North Carolina A&T in the 1960s that he really became active in civil rights protests.

“He said he moved back to Chicago after graduating and met Martin Luther King and even brought him to Greenville once but said the Greenville News (newspaper) wouldn’t even cover it at the time,” Josh said.

“He also talked about how important reading was to him, and in high school we would sneak into the Furman University library just to read books.”

Josh posed with Jackson for a photo after the breakfast discussion, captioning it “Great time meeting a legend today,” on Twitter. The Greenie was retweeted to Jackson’s 192,000 followers and got a response from Jackson that included the hashtag "#KeepHopeAlive."