Very few know about Jesse Jackson’s contributions to the EB-5 Industry. In this special tribute episode, we remember his words and honor his life and legacy . He was a civil rights activist and presidential candidate but above all, a towering moral voice who saw investment not merely as economics but as a pathway to justice.
Nine years after he joined us on our podcast, we revisit his powerful words on the Rainbow Push coalition, the Wall Street Project, and the regenerative potential of the EB-5 programme. He described economic access as the “fourth stage” of the civil rights movement and reminded us that “Inclusion is the key to growth, when there’s growth, everybody wins.”
As we reflect on his life and legacy, we allow his words to speak his vision, a vision of fair opportunity and capital flowing into underserved communities.
Rest well, Reverend Jackson.
“Let me just say one of his wonderful lines, which was ‘inclusion is the key to growth. When there’s growth, everybody wins.’ That’s the EB-5 programme at its best. And that’s the work we’re still doing”- Mona Shah
Listen to our podcast episode with Jesse Jackson here
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Transcript
This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker’s remarks
Mona Shah
(0:59) Very few people in the EB-5 industry know about the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s contributions to EB-5, how he promoted EB-5 within the Wall Street Project and the Rainbow Push programme.
Rebecca Singh
(1:12) Yeah, Mona, you know, it’s almost exactly nine years this month, where we’re in February of 2026, since we had a podcast conversation with Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Mona Shah
(1:24) Yeah, you’re right, Rebecca. Unfortunately, the Reverend passed on February 17th, 2026. He was a highly intelligent and remarkable man.
He will be missed.
Rebecca Singh
(1:37) Yes, I think the entire community is mourning his passing. And Mona, we were very honoured to have him on our podcast show. And, you know, today, what we want to do is to let his words do the work.
(1:51) We want this because what he said in 2017 about investment, inclusion, and the EB-5 programme resonates even today.
Mona Shah
(2:01) Yeah, you know, Rebecca, he understood, he didn’t understand EB-5 the way you and I or practitioners understand it on a technical or even a legal basis. He saw it in a very different, a philosophical manner. He said words which, quite frankly, echo and have a meaning now.
(2:21) I would say that, really, this isn’t a tribute. It’s a masterclass in why the programme matters from one of the great moral voices of our time. Just listen to this clip, Rebecca, back from our 2017 recording.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
(2:36) Rainbow Push Wall Street Project encourages investment, local, national, foreign investment and development. Inclusion is the key to growth. When there’s growth, everybody wins.
(2:49) As a civil rights matter, this is the fourth stage of our struggle. The fourth stage of our development is access to capital and industry and technology and deal flow. And while many African Americans and Latinos have been locked out of the economy, we are the fast emerging market.
Mona Shah
(3:08) So, at the time, I didn’t really understand what he meant by the fourth stage of the struggle and what he actually meant as in how many African Americans and Latinos have been locked out of the economy. I heard him and yet now in 2026, when we have started seeing the growth and the money coming from Africa, Latin America, and I would say the non-usual countries, not Europe, but these other smaller different countries which are emerging, you can now see what the Reverend was saying, what his vision was.
Rebecca Singh
(3:49) Yeah. And you know what he says, Mona, and I think this is, you know, the title of this episode is inclusion is the key to growth.
Mona Shah
(3:58) Well, it’s not a slogan really, is it? It’s actually the entire EB-5 argument in six words.
Rebecca Singh
(4:04) Yeah. And it’s just, you know, like you said, we’re nine years ago when he said this. And like you said, we didn’t understand, but his vision, we’re seeing that coming through, you know, in today’s world.
Mona Shah
(4:20) He called it, what did he say? He called it the fourth stage of the civil rights movement, political rights, legal rights, legal equality, voting rights, and most importantly, economic access. And EB-5 sits squarely in the fourth stage.
(4:35) He called it, I think he called it what? A legal mechanism for rooting capital into communities that have historically been denied it.
Rebecca Singh
(4:41) What he said and his vision and everything that he’s put together for the, even for the rainbow push, you know, of what he was trying to do. He’s taken it, you know, through these years to a different level.
Mona Shah
(4:54) But before even he gets onto the rainbow push, I don’t know if you recall, but during that podcast episode, right at the very beginning, we were discussing Trump 1.0’s travel ban. And I believe at that time it was a travel ban of like seven countries. And listen to what he said.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
(5:11) Oddly enough, the U.S. Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, the sense of bad judgement has offended both parties because it’s not the American way. It’s not good for business. It’s not good morality.
(5:24) It’s not good for humanity.
Mona Shah
(5:27) There you go. It’s not the American way.
Rebecca Singh
(5:30) No, but here we are today, Mona, and that country ban has expanded now to 75 countries for immigrant visas processing. Yeah. I would love to have heard what he had to say on this.
Mona Shah
(5:42) Yeah, you’re right. The 2017 uncertainty feels nothing like the 2026 uncertainties for sure.
Rebecca Singh
(5:50) Yeah, but I mean, and I think with the EB-5 programme, what do you think, Mona? Have you seen Reverend Jesse’s Jackson vision come through with the change and with RIA having more transparency, having, you know, do you see anything that has made a difference? (6Do you see more in rural projects, TEA, the underdeserved areas?
Mona Shah
(6:13) Well, here’s the thing. Jesse Jackson discussed and spoke as if RIA was there when RIA was how many years away? RIA came in in 2022.
(6:24) And this was in 2017 when we had this outcast. But listen to this clip.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
(6:30) We think the one mistake that’s been made was such a vertical gap between the surplus culture and the deficit culture, those who have more than they need and those who don’t have enough, is that we’ve globalised capital without globalising human rights and workers’ rights and investment opportunities and children’s rights and environmental security. We must globalise all of this. (6:52) For example, if the U.S. were playing China in a basketball game, which they do in the Olympics, and what is the salient characteristic of that game, and it’s very welcomed, is because the playing field is even and the rule of public, goals are clear, the referees are fair, and score is transparent. (7:12) Let the winner win, let the loser lose, and shake hands and move on to the next game. Those conditions should expand to trade and investment. Right now, the concern is that if it goes over to a trade Olympics rather than an athletic Olympics, the playing field is not even.
(7:27) Rules not public, goals not clear, referees not fair, score not transparent. We must globalise economic investment opportunities.
Mona Shah
(7:35) There you see, Rebecca, I think this has to be his most intellectually sophisticated moment in the entire conversation and one that in 2017 lands hardest in 2026.
Rebecca Singh
(7:47) Yeah, we’re seeing, you know, globalised capital without actually globalising the rights and opportunities that should have been afforded with it. I mean, we’re seeing that now even with, you know, with the EB-5 programme itself, we’re seeing, you know, everyone, all these investors are putting into these communities, rural, high unemployment areas, but look at how long it’s taking for them to get what, you know, they’re investing in. The green card as well is taking forever for them to get this.
Mona Shah
(8:16) I know, but what he was really trying to make, I think, in that comment as well, is that whole comment about the surplus culture versus a deficit culture. What he’s trying to say is exactly what EB-5 is designed to bridge. An investor from abroad, someone in the surplus directs capital towards an undeserved American community in the deficits.
(8:36) Jobs are created, a visa pathway is earned, but yes, you’re right, it’s not coming out the way it should have been coming out. It certainly isn’t coming out for the investor in an equal opportunity.
Rebecca Singh
(8:48) Yeah, but even in those areas, are we really investing in the areas that are really needed? And not just Jackson who said that, you know, these are from other congressmen, you know, who said that we should be in rural areas or areas that really needed the development. So it’s kind of on both sides.
Mona Shah
(9:08) Yeah, he did say, though, he did describe the problem with the global investment quite broadly, but for every EB-5 practitioner in 2026, he knows what Jesse Jackson was talking about specifically. It’s the work, as you’ve just mentioned before, the work of making EB-5 fair, transparent, and accessible to all. But the one thing, and I will take a little credit, that Jesse did say, that the Reverend did say, is the fact that the big EB-5 projects don’t have to be the big glamour hotels.
Rebecca Singh
(9:45) Oh, Maud, I think you’ve been saying that too since 2013.
Mona Shah
(9:49) Well before then.
Rebecca Singh
(9:51) Yeah, it’s, you know, the whole point of the EB-5 programme was for job creation, to expand and build our infrastructure in areas that really needed it.
Mona Shah
(10:03) Well, he had a vision for America. He saw that there are, you know, high employment, urban zones aren’t charity cases. He said there was market, money, talent, location, growth, undervalued assets, waiting capital.
(10:16) In a way, it’s like dipping into the countries where they have all these resources and spending a little bit of money and then really repaying the rewards. He saw EB-5 going into the TEA locations as doing the same kind of thing.
Rebecca Singh
(10:30) Yeah, and not just in the, I mean, you mentioned big cities. We’re talking about, he was talking about Chicago and Detroit. And, you know, a lot of people think that investing in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, all these big cities, even, but he was talking about the undeserved areas in these major metropolitan areas, right?
(10:49) Because New York City is huge. Chicago is a huge area, but there are lots of pockets in there that really needed the development. I mean, Detroit, we’ve seen even with the water, you know, all of those need, we need infrastructure in those areas.
(11:03) Right, right. Yeah. Well, listen to him.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
(11:06) Most of these ghettos or these urban barriers represent market, money, talent, location, and growth.
Mona Shah
(11:15) There you go. The Reverend said it again. And this was really brought up in the Rainbow Push conference, Rebecca, which we were again honoured to be part of.
Rebecca Singh
(11:24) Oh, yeah. So we were attended and Mona, you spoke. I did.
(11:29) Yeah. It was the 20th annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit. And I mean, we had, you know, everyone from Senators Chuck Schumer, Kristen Gillibrand, Congressman Charles Rangel, mayors, you know, all from all over.
(11:45) I mean, this was a huge summit. I think there was over 2,500 corporate executives attending this.
Mona Shah
(11:52) I feel so humble, Rebecca. The Reverend gave me so much attention that day. He put me on stage on my own and made everybody listen.
(12:02) He made everybody try and understand how EB-5 was a stepping stone to his vision. And yeah, we hoped that it would have continued. But unfortunately, with his illness, the Rainbow Push kind of started slowing down.
(12:19) Yeah. But what I think Jess Jackson did do in the short period of time he was involved with EB-5 was that he gave the EB-5 community, I would say, a legitimacy and a moral framing. Look, he named EB-5 as part of the same tradition as the civil rights movement, not just an immigration programme, but economic justice.
Rebecca Singh
(12:42) Yeah. And you know, Mona, I hope this is something that we can carry forward and continue the EB-5 programme and what good it has done for the community instead of having programmes like the Gold Card programme coming in. And I think it’s taking away from the opportunities that we could make, you know, as our president says, America great again.
Mona Shah
(13:06) But I think, you know, what I have seen from 2017 to date, and we’ve seen this in recent changes, for example, in the programme in Antigua, they’ve taken away from private hotels and they’ve started putting money from citizenship by investment into local growth. And I feel that other countries are learning from Jesse Jackson’s vision in a way that our own country is not. And I would love to see other countries really going out and, you know, capitalising on this more.
(13:44) We need this. We need this type of vision in the UK. We need this type of vision in many parts of America.
(13:50) There are so many places where we need to channel this type of energy. Yes.
Rebecca Singh
(13:56) Yeah. And like you said, we have seen it, you know, Portugal has changed their entire programme. They’re focussing a bit more.
(14:01) Yeah. Other than real estate, you know, there are the arts, there are other, you know, smaller businesses that are coming and how can we come together and prosper in that way?
Mona Shah
(14:12) Yeah. That’s what Jesse Jackson said. He said, it’s not the glamour projects.
(14:16) It’s the vacant lots, the abandoned schools, the undercapitalized cities. Yeah. I like to end with something that he said, because he just managed to say everything just so completely.
(14:27) And again, this was the theme of this podcast, Rebecca, wasn’t it? But here, let me just say one of his wonderful lines, which was inclusion is the key to growth. When there’s growth, everybody wins.
(14:42) That’s the EB-5 programme at its best. And that’s the work we’re still doing.
Rebecca Singh
(14:47) Oh, Mona, those words are so lovely. Rest well, Reverend Jackson.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
(14:54) Inclusion is the key to growth. When there’s growth, everybody wins.