Jesse Jackson's 1972 Sesame Street Visit

A young Black man sits on a brownstone stoop, hair in an Afro and a medallion around his neck, as children of different races gather on the set of Sesame Street in 1972. He leads a call-and-response—“I am!” “Somebody!”—that echoes a refrain Jesse Jackson used at rallies.

Jackson, the civil rights leader, died on Tuesday at 84. The children reply with lines that insist on their dignity: “I may be small! But I am! Somebody!” “I may be on welfare! But I am! Somebody!” They declare, in turns loud and shy, that race, language or circumstance do not erase their worth: “I am Black!

Brown! White! I speak a different language! But I must be respected! Protected! Never rejected! I am! God’s child! I am! Somebody!” At its start, Sesame Street was meant as a statement of inclusion, aimed at reaching every part of the public and notable enough to draw racist complaints and even bans over its diverse casting.

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