Back in March 2015, I went to South By Southwest for work. I used to be in the educational technology world as a writer/marketing person, so SXSW was a good event to attend.

This might be surprising to people who think of it as a music/movie event, but a large part of it is focused on technology and creative professions. It was there that I shook the hand of a civil rights legend.

In the image above, that is me shaking hands with Rev. Jesse Jackson. The other guy is Van Jones. The two of them were doing a panel on how to increase diversity and inclusion in the tech world. It was quite an interesting conversation, with Jackson discussing how technology companies needed to increase the number of women and people of color. Jones pointed out to the small audience the ways that Jackson has been pushing tech companies to be better in hiring practices. Many people, he said, don’t know that Jackson successfully led the effort to get Silicon Valley tech companies to release diversity numbers. “It revealed what we suspected,” Jackson said, “that the deck has been stacked against women and people of color.”

This was vintage Jackson, and it was an honor to shake the man’s hand at the end of it and tell him about how much my mother loved him, and that she was gone with dementia at that point, and to this he told me that my mother had raised me right and that her memory “would be a blessing.”

I thought about that moment due to Rev. Jackson’s passing last week at the age of 84. I was sad when I heard, but I had wondered about his health during the event, as he seemed to be moving a little slowly. I also thought about the reason why I got to shake his hand: He spoke in a room that holds 2,500 people, to a crowd of a hundred, if that.

So, there weren’t many people to compete with for such a historic handshake. People I was at the conference with made all kinds of excuses, that people were out doing the famous SXSW party circuit, and the morning timing was why there were so few people. Except that the event started at 11:00 a.m. Not exactly the crack of dawn!

I think it’s pretty clear now that the tech industry is full of broken right-wing people, so of course, they wouldn’t attend an event led by Jesse Jackson, especially those in leadership. More women and Black people in technology? That’s the last thing that particular crowd would push for.

Tomorrow is the last day of Black History Month. It’s rather fitting that such a legend of civil rights would pass during this month. It is disheartening that this is happening during this particular Black History Month.

For starters, the tech industry has indeed revealed itself to be every bit as bad as it possibly could be. Racism in tech continues to be an issue. Plus, they have gone all in for Trump.

And Trump is a man who recently shared a video on his social media hell site that portrayed Barack and Michell Obama as apes. I’ll repeat: the president of the United States shared a video that showed the Black former president and first lady as apes.

That’s just the basics. There is a concerted effort to rewind the accomplishments of civil rights and erase any reference to contributions of non-white people and atrocities committed against them from our history. Donald Trump has surpassed any president in terms of racism.

That this is going on in 2026 means that the spirit of Black History Month is more important than ever. It’s a lesson that we can lose progress achieved by leaders like Rev. Jackson via just one election, that there are people in this country who are bound and determined to make a whites-only nation. America has always needed to be reminded of its history. To quote Gore Vidal, “We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.”

Even if Donald Trump were to strip February of its status as Black History Month, he can’t kill the memory as long as all of us keep it, like hope, alive.

The last word goes to Sam Cooke.