Jesse Jackson, Sr.

• Born: 8 October 1941
• Birthplace: Greenville, South Carolina
• Best Known As: Aide to Martin Luther King and candidate for U.S. president

Once an aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson has been a political activist and public figure since the civil rights days of the 1960s. Jackson, a Baptist minister, is the founder of the non-profit organization PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). In the 1980s he was a regular presence at rallies and protests, especially on the topic of civil rights but also in other areas. He has several times been an unofficial U.S. envoy in diplomatic missions; in 1999 he helped secure the release of three American military prisoners from Yugoslavia. He made unsuccessful runs for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president in 1984 and 1988, losing to Walter Mondale in 1984 and to Michael Dukakis in 1988. Both elections were ultimately won by Republican candidates: Ronald Reagan (1984) and George Bush Sr. (1988).

He married the former Jacqueline Lavinia in 1962. Their son, Jesse Jr., was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994... The elder Jackson admitted in 2001 that he was the father of a daughter, Ashley, who had been born out of wedlock in 1999 after Jackson had an affair with a worker at the Washington PUSH offices... Jackson is no relation to pop star Michael Jackson.

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(b. Greenville, South Carolina, 8 Oct. 1941) US; civil rights leader Jackson was born out of wedlock but his natural mother later married and gave him his adoptive father's name. Jackson's athletic ability won him a scholarship to the University of Illinois. Poor academic progress and a desire to play quarterback made him transfer to an all-black college (North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State College) where he became a prominent quarterback and an active civil rights leader.

After graduation, Jackson worked briefly for North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford and then went to Chicago Theological Seminary. Jackson was more drawn to political activism than the ministry and he left to work for Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (He was, however, ordained in 1968.)

In 1966 King, who took a personal interest in Jackson's career, appointed him to organize Operation Breadbasket (the economic arm of SCLC) in Chicago. Jackson displayed imaginative and dynamic leadership persuading many Chicago firms to improve their job opportunities for blacks. In 1967 he became National Director of Operation Breadbasket.

Jackson was with King when he was assassinated in 1968. Although Jackson saw himself as King's organizational heir, there was opposition to him inside the SCLC and Ralph Abernathy was appointed to succeed King. Organizational tensions heightened as Jackson increasingly developed his own approach to black politics. In 1971 Jackson was suspended from the SCLC and in the same year he founded PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). This initiative was followed in 1976 by PUSH-Excel, a campaign targeted at the problems of black youth, especially drugs and truancy.

His personal charisma and the high-profile organization (which was frequently criticized for administrative incompetence) made Jackson a major black leader and gave him a national reputation. He gained national exposure from high-profile international trips — for example those to South Africa and the Middle East in 1979. In 1983 – 4 he translated his growing celebrity status into a presidential election bid. The effort proved divisive not just within the Democratic Party but also in the black community as moderate blacks such as Tom Bradley and Andrew Young opposed him. He won 458 delegates and came way behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. He immediately began building a network of support for his next presidential bid. He founded the National Rainbow Coalition in 1986 in an attempt to broaden his political base beyond the black community and urged extended voter registration among blacks and delegate selection rule changes. Despite running well in the primaries, he came second to Michael Dukakis with 962 delegates or 23 per cent of the total. He had however shown that a black candidate could secure white votes at the national level and had made himself a major force in the Democratic Party.

In 1990 Jackson won the nomination for one of two shadow senator seats from the District of Columbia. Jackson's enhanced political position was seen as potentially damaging to the Democratic Party. In 1992, Bill Clinton took care to distance himself from Jackson's style of minority politics and policies such as quotas likely to deter voters. Jackson remains the most charismatic leader of America's black community and may yet have further political impact especially if he continues to adapt his agenda and style to the demands of mainstream politics.

Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson (born 1941), the most successful African American presidential candidate in U.S. history, received over three million votes in the 1984 election.

Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 18, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, a city beset with the problems of racial segregation. From birth, Jackson faced his own personal brand of discrimination. As a young girl his mother, Helen Burns, became pregnant by her married next-door neighbor, Noah Robinson. The young boy was shunned and taunted by his neighbors and school classmates for being "a nobody who had no daddy." Instead of letting this adversity defeat him, Jackson developed his exceptional drive and understanding of those who are oppressed. His mother eventually married and became a successful hairdresser while his stepfather, a postal employee, adopted Jackson in 1957. With helpful advice from his maternal grandmother and his own desire to succeed, Jackson overcame his numerous childhood insecurities, finishing tenth in his high school class, even though he was actively involved in sports. His academic and athletic background earned Jackson a football scholarship at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Jackson, eager to get away from the Southern racial climate, traveled north only to find both open and covert discrimination at the university and in other parts of the city.

After several semesters Jackson decided to leave the University of Illinois, return to the South, and attend North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (A&T) in Greensboro, an institution for African American students. Jackson again proved himself an able scholar and athlete. When his popularity on the campus led to his victory as student body president, Jackson did not take the responsibility lightly. As a college senior, he became a civil rights leader. Although he was not in Greensboro when the four African American freshman from A&T staged their famous Woolworth's sit-in in February 1960 - the action which launched sit-down demonstrations throughout the South - Jackson actively encouraged his fellow students to continue their protests against racial injustice by staging repeated demonstrations and boycotts. Much of the open discrimination in the South fell before the onslaught of these student demonstrations.

Civil Rights Movement

In the spring of 1968 many of SCLC's officers - including Jackson - were drawn away from other civil rights protests by the Memphis, Tennessee, garbage collectors' strike. The situation in that city was especially tense because many African Americans who professed to be tired of passive resistance were willing and ready to fight. Tragically, King, in his attempt to prevent racial violence in that city, met a violent death by an assassin's bullet while standing on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968.

Some controversy surrounds the moments just after King was wounded. Jackson claimed on national television that he was the last person to talk to King and that he had held the dying leader in his arms, getting blood all over his shirt. The other men present unanimously agreed that this was not true, that Jackson had been in the parking lot facing King when he was shot and had neither climbed the steps to the balcony afterward nor gone to the hospital with King. Whatever the truth of the matter, Jackson's appearance on national television the next day with his bloodied turtleneck jersey vaulted him into national prominence. The image of Jackson and his bloody shirt brought the horror of the assassination into American homes. Jackson's ego, stirring oratory and charismatic presence caused the media to anoint him and not Ralph Abernathy, King's successor. Many observers believe that at this point, Jackson determined to become heir to King's position as the nation's foremost African American leader. In 1971, Jackson was suspended from the SCLC after its leaders claimed that he was using the organization to further his own personal agenda.

Operation PUSH

After his suspension from the SCLC, Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an organization which essentially continued the work of Operation Breadbasket without SCLC's sponsorship. Standing in front of a picture of Dr. King, Jackson promised to begin "a rainbow coalition of blacks and whites gathered together to push for a greater share of economic and political power for all poor people in America." Throughout the decade, Jackson relentlessly spoke out against racism, militarism and the class divisions in American. He became a household name throughout the nation with his slogan "I Am Somebody".

By the mid 1970's, Jackson was a national figure. He realized that many of the problems plaguing the African American community stemmed from drug abuse and teen pregnancy and not simply economic deprivation. In 1976, Jackson created the PUSH-Excel, a program aimed at motivating children and teens to succeed. A fiery orator, Jackson traveled from city to city delivering his message of personal responsibility and self-worth to students: "You're not a man because you can kill somebody. You are not a man because you can make a baby … You're a man only if you can raise a baby, protect a baby and provide for a baby."

Jackson's support in the African American community allowed him to influence both local and national elections. Possibly the most important campaign in which he was involved was the election victory of the first African American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, in 1983. Washington's victory was attributed in part to Jackson's ability to convince over 100,000 African Americans, many of them youths, to register to vote. Jackson would also use his charisma to garner new voters during his 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Rainbow Coalition

Jackson's debut on the international scene occurred when President Jimmy Carter approved his visit to South Africa. Jackson attracted huge crowds at his rallies where he denounced apartheid, South Africa's oppressive system that prevented the black majority population from enjoying the rights and privileges of the white minority. Later in 1979, he toured the Middle East where he embraced Yassar Arafat, the then-exiled Palestinian leader. Jackson's embrace of a man considered a terrorist by the American government created yet another controversy. The result of these international excursions caused Jackson's fame and popularity to grow within the African American community.

As the 1980's began, Jackson moderated many of his political positions. He was no longer the flamboyant young man wearing long hair and gold medallions, but a more conservative, mature figure seeking ways to reform the Democratic party from within. He continued to advocate his "rainbow coalition" as a way for all Americans to improve the country.

After growing increasingly disenchanted with the existing political scene, Jackson decided that he would campaign against Walter Mondale and Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic presidential primaries. His campaign centered on a platform of social programs for the poor and the disabled, alleviation of taxes for the poor, increased voting rights, effective affirmative action initiatives for the hiring of women and minorities, and improved civil rights for African Americans, poor whites, immigrants, homosexuals, Native Americans, and women. Jackson also took a stand on many world issues. He called for increased aid to African nations and more consideration of the rights of Arabs. His support for Arab nations and African American Muslims provoked much criticism, especially from Jewish voters. In early 1984, Jackson used his popularity in the Arab world to obtain the release of an American pilot, Lt. Robert Goodman, who had been shot down over Lebanon.

When he returned home, Jackson concentrated on securing the African American vote for his candidacy. He did not receive support from most senior African American politicians, who felt that Jackson's candidacy would cause disunity within the Democratic camp and benefit the Republicans. However, many poor African Americans enthusiastically supported him. Jackson received 3.5 million votes, and possibly 2 million of those voters were newly registered. He carried 60 congressional districts on a budget of less than $3 million. Although many Americans, both black and white, were decidedly opposed to Jackson, he earned grudging respect because his campaign fared better than most people had expected. When Jackson conceded defeat at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, much of America listened respectfully to his address. Although his campaign was unsuccessful, Jackson's powerful presence had broken new ground and involved more African Americans in the political process.

After the 1984 election, Jackson devoted his time between working for Operation PUSH in Chicago and his new National Rainbow Coalition in Washington DC. This national coalition was designed to be a force for reform within the Democratic party. It also provided Jackson with a platform from which to mount his 1988 presidential bid. Jackson's campaign received a much broader base of support than in 1984. His polished delivery, quick wit, and campaign experience helped him to gain many new supporters. Among the seven serious contenders for the Democratic nomination, Jackson finished second to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

In 1990, Jackson was named one of two "shadow senators" to Congress from Washington DC to press for the district's statehood. Although the idea fizzled, it helped to keep Jackson in the public eye. In 1992, Jackson backed Democratic candidate Bill Clinton during the presidential campaign. He used his influence to urge African American voters to support Clinton. These efforts helped Clinton to win the election and return a Democrat to the White House for the first time in 12 years.

Critics often accuse Jackson of simply being a cheerleader of causes, a person who favors style over substance. Despite his unflagging energy and devotion to his causes, many felt that he was devoted only to his own self-aggrandizement. "This is the long-term pattern of Jackson's politics. He has always sought to operate and be recognized as a political insider, as a leader without portfolio or without accountability to any constituency that he claims to represent" wrote political critic Adolph Reed Jr. in the Progressive. "PUSH ran as a simple extension of his will and he has sought to ensure that the Rainbow Coalition would be the same kind of rubber stamp, a letterhead and front for his mercurial ambition."

Despite the criticism he has faced, Jackson continues to advocate for the rights of the downtrodden and challenge others to move beyond adversity. In 1995, Jackson wrote in Essence magazine, "People who are victimized may not be responsible for being down, but they must be responsible for getting up. Slave masters don't retire; people who are enslaved change their minds and choose to join the abolitionist struggle ….Change has always been led by those whose spirits were bigger than their circumstances … I do have hope. We have seen significant victories during the last 25 years."

Further Reading

Jackson's autobiography, Straight from the Heart, was published in 1987. There are a number of biographies of Jackson and several analytical studies of his presidential campaign. Two are Barbara A. Reynolds' sympathetic biography entitled Jesse Jackson: America's David (1985) and a critical work written by Thomas Landess and Richard Quinn, Jesse Jackson and the Politics of Race (1985). Several other biographies are Adolph L. Reed, The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon, a somewhat negative portrait (1986); Shield D. Collins, From Melting Pot to Rainbow Coalition (1986); and a children's book by Warren J. Halliburton, The Picture Life of Jesse Jackson (1984). Other works include Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson; James Haskins, I Am Somebody! A Biography of Jesse Jackson, and Political Parties and Elections in the United States Vol. 1, edited by L. Sandy Maisel.

civil rights leader; politician; minister (religion)

Personal Information

Full name, Jesse Louis Jackson; original name, Jesse Louis Burns; born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, SC; son of Noah Robinson (a cotton grader) and Helen Burns Jackson (a hairdresser); adopted by stepfather, Charles Henry Jackson (a postal worker), 1957; married Jacqueline Lavinia Davis, 1964; children: Santita, Jesse Louis, Jr., Jonathan Luther, Yusef Du Bois, Jacqueline Lavinia; grandchildren: Jessica and Jonathan.
Education: Attended University of Illinois, 1959-60; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, B.A., 1964; attended Chicago Theological Seminary, 1964-66; M.Div., Chicago Theological Seminary, 2000.
Politics: Democrat.
Religion: Baptist.

Career

Field rep for CORE, 1964; SCLC demonstrator, Selma, 1965; Chicago coordinator of Operation Breadbasket, 1966-67, national dir, 1967-71; founder, Operation PUSH, 1971, executive director, 1971-86, founder, PUSH-Excel, PUSH for Economic Justice; candidate for Democratic presidential candidate, 1983-84, 1987-88; National Rainbow Coalition Inc., Chicago, founder, 1986, national president, 1986-; senator, District of Columbia, 1991-96; TV host, Voices of America with Jesse Jackson; Chicago radio host; columnist, Los Angeles Times Syndicate; founder, the Wall Street Project, 1997; co-author, It's About Money, 2000.

Life's Work

Jesse Jackson has firmly established himself as one of the most dynamic forces for social and political action in both the national and international arenas. He has campaigned for economic justice, human rights, world peace, and the United States presidency. An inspirational speaker, committed activist, and tireless and confident campaigner, Jackson began his career as a foot soldier in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and has developed into a leader of millions of Americans--black and white--a "rainbow coalition" of the nation's dispossessed and disenfranchised.

Jackson has drawn upon his own early experience in Greenville, South Carolina, to relate to his constituency. He was born on October 8, 1941, to a seventeen-year-old unwed high school student and her older, comfortably middle-class neighbor, a married man. Jackson's ancestry includes black slaves, a Cherokee, and a white plantation owner. Although the young Jackson was quite aware of poverty and illegitimacy, his mother, grandmother, and stepfather were always able to attend to family needs. Even so, his knowledge of social inequities and of his more privileged half brothers affected him. As Barbara Reynolds wrote in her biography Jesse Jackson: America's David: "Every teacher Jesse came into contact with took note of his insecurities, masked by a stoic sense of superiority. They never perceived him as brilliant, but rather each saw him as a charmer, a spirited, fierce competitor with an almost uncanny drive to prove himself by always winning, always being number one in everything." At Sterling High School Jackson was elected president of his class, the honor society, and the student council, was named state officer of the Future Teachers of America, finished tenth in his class, and lettered in football, basketball, and baseball.

In 1959 Jackson left the South to attend the University of Illinois on an athletic scholarship. During his first year, however, he became dissatisfied with his treatment on campus and on the gridiron and decided to transfer to Greensboro's North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, a predominantly black institution. There he was quarterback, honor student, fraternity officer, and president of the student body. After receiving his B.A. in sociology he accepted a Rockefeller grant to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he planned to train for the ministry. Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968, though he had not finished his course work at CTS, having instead left in 1966 to commit himself full-time to the Civil Rights movement.

Jackson first became involved in the Civil Rights movement while a student at North Carolina A&T. There he joined the Greensboro chapter of the Council on Racial Equality (CORE), an organization that had led early sit-ins to protest segregated lunch counters. In 1963 Jackson organized numerous marches, sit-ins, and mass arrests to press for the desegregation of local restaurants and theaters. His leadership in these events earned him recognition within the regional movement; he was chosen president of the North Carolina Intercollegiate Council on Human Rights, field director of CORE's southeastern operations, and in 1964 served as delegate to the Young Democrats National Convention. In Chicago in 1965 Jackson was a volunteer for the Coordinating Committee of Community Organizations and organized regular meetings of local black ministers and the faculty of the Chicago Theological Seminary.

Joined King and the SCLC in 1965

Jackson joined Martin Luther King, Jr., and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1965 during demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, pushing for expanded voting rights for blacks. When the SCLC launched the Chicago Freedom movement in 1966, Jackson was there to put his knowledge of the city and contacts within the black community to work for King. He organized local ministers to support the movement, marched through all-white neighborhoods to push for open housing, and began work on the SCLC's economic program, Operation Breadbasket. Drawing from successful campaigns in other cities, Operation Breadbasket organized the black community to use selective buying and boycotts to support black manufacturers and retailers and to pressure white-owned businesses to stock more of their products and hire more black workers. Jackson served as Operation Breadbasket's Chicago coordinator for one year and was then named its national director. Under Jackson's leadership the Chicago group won concessions from local dairies and supermarkets to hire more blacks and stock more products from black businesses. It encouraged deposits from businesses and the government for black-owned banks and organized a Black Christmas and a Black Expo to promote black-owned manufacturers.

In addition to his SCLC activities, Jackson led a number of other campaigns in his adopted home city and state. In 1969 and 1970 he gathered Illinois's malnourished and led them on a march to the state capital to raise consciousness of hunger. He led a similar event in Chicago. The state responded by increasing funding to school lunch programs, but Mayor Richard Daley's machine in Chicago was less cooperative. The mayor's power and resistance to change, as well as an Illinois law that raised difficult barriers to independent candidates, prompted Jackson to run for mayor of Chicago in 1971. He was not successful; some believe, however, that his efforts laid the foundation for Harold Washington's successful bid to become Chicago's first black mayor in 1983.

In 1971 Jackson resigned from the SCLC to found his own organization, People United to Save Humanity (PUSH). Because of his aggressive, impatient, and commanding personality, Jackson had long irritated SCLC leadership; and, in the three and a half years after King's assassination, he had offended others with his public antics to secure a role as leader of the Civil Rights movement and his feuds with Ralph D. Abernathy, King's successor as president of the SCLC, over leadership, policy, and funding.

Through PUSH Jackson continued to pursue the economic objectives of Operation Breadbasket and expand into areas of social and political development for blacks in Chicago and across the nation. The 1970s saw direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts, and awards through which Jackson protected black homeowners, workers, and businesses, and honored prominent blacks in the U.S. and abroad. He also promoted education through

PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program that focused on keeping inner-city youths in school and providing them with job placement.

Ran for President

Jackson launched his first campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. His appeals for social programs, voting rights, and affirmative action for those neglected by Reaganomics earned him strong showings in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C. He received 3.5 million votes, enough to secure a measure of power and respect at the Democratic convention.

Jackson's 1988 campaign for the Democratic nomination was characterized by more organization and funding than his previous attempt. With the experience he gained from 1984 and new resources, Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition surprised the media and the political pundits. Initially written off as unelectable, Jackson emerged in the primary/caucus season as a serious contender for the nomination. He attracted over 6.9 million votes--from urban blacks and Hispanics, poor rural whites, farmers and factory workers, feminists and homosexuals, and from white progressives wanting to be part of a historic change. In his platform he called for homes for the homeless, comparable worth and day care for working women, a higher minimum wage, a commitment to the family farm, and an all-out war on drugs. "When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground" he told delegates at the party convention on July 19, 1988, "we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our nation.

After early respectable losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he won five southern states on Super Tuesday, March 8, 1988. On March 12 he won the caucus in his birth state of South Carolina and three days later finished second in his home state of Illinois. On March 26, 1988 Jackson stunned Dukakis and the rest of the nation in the Michigan caucus: Having won that northern industrial state with 55 percent of the vote, Jackson became the Democratic front-runner. Dukakis later recaptured the lead and the eventual nomination with strong showings in the second half of the primary season.

Jackson then exercised the power of his second-place finish to force his consideration as a vice-presidential running mate and to influence the nature of the Democratic Convention and the issues included on its platform. Although Jackson was not chosen as the vice-presidential running mate, he had succeeded in bringing Americans of all colors to consider a black man for the presidency and vice-presidency.

After the 1988 elections Jackson moved his home from Chicago to Washington, D.C. There he has campaigned against homelessness in the nation's capital. He was considered one of the top contenders to take over as the capital's mayor after Marion Berry was forced out of office by a drug scandal, but Jackson refused to run. Instead, he announced in July of 1990 that he would seek election as the District of Columbia's "statehood senator," a position recently established by the city government to push Congress to grant statehood to the district. He was elected in November and sworn into office in January of 1991. Jackson did not seek re-election after his six-year term as statehood senator ended in 1996, although he continued to advocate statehood for the nation's capital.

From D.C. to Wall Street

In 1997, Jackson shifted his focus from the nation's political capital to its financial capital. Seeing a need for a stronger minority presence on New York's Wall Street, Jackson founded the Wall Street Project. The organization lobbied companies to provide more business and employment opportunities for minorities. The Wall Street Project promoted conscientiousness among African American stockholders who may not realize the influence that they have as shareholders. As Jackson explained to Black Enterprise, "When you go into a meeting as a shareholder, you now have the right to the floor. Now you can walk into a board meeting and say 'Mr. Chairman, I'd like to see a list of our Board of Directors...a list of our employees so we can see where they fit into this company horizontally and vertically." A stockholder has the power to promote greater employment and business opportunities for African Americans.

Prior to founding the Wall Street Project, Jackson's strategy for influencing corporate behavior had been to organize protests. However, a pivotal event occurred in 1996 which helped Jackson decide to change his tactics. When charges had surfaced that Texaco employees had made racist comments, Jackson called New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, asking him to join him in picketing Texaco. McCall told Black Enterprise that he responded, "'Jesse, when you own a million shares you don't have to picket.'" Because McCall controlled New York state's investments, he had a great deal of influence with the companies the state had invested in.

With the Wall Street Project, Jackson hopes to give minorities the same influence McCall had with Texaco. Jackson told Black Enterprise. "We empower politically with our vote. Now we must empower economically with our dollar." But not just anyone can vote. Only stockholders have a real say in corporate operations. The purchase of just ten shares of stock, Jackson said, provides a shareholder with enough leverage to promote business opportunities for African Americans. As the stock's value increases, so too does the amount of influence a shareholder has. Jackson told Ebony, "So we have gone from sharecroppers to shareholders. We say to corporate America: We don't want to be just consumers and workers, but investors and partners."

Diplomatic Efforts

Throughout his career as a political and social activist, Jackson has also been a prominent figure in international diplomacy. In 1979 he traveled to South Africa to speak out against apartheid and to the Middle East to try to establish relations between Israel and the Palestinians. In January of 1984 he returned to the Middle East to negotiate the release of Lieutenant Robert Goodman, a black Navy pilot who had been shot down and taken hostage in the region. Later that year he traveled to Cuba to negotiate the release of several political prisoners held there and to Central America, where he spoke out for regional peace. In 1990 Jackson was the first American to bring hostages out of Iraq and Kuwait.

When three U.S. soldiers serving as part of NATO's forces in Yugoslavia were captured by the Yugoslav army in March of 1999, Jackson, along with an interfaith delegation, embarked on a diplomatic mission to negotiate their release. U.S. national security advisor Sandy Berger warned Jackson, as a private citizen, he did not have the authority to offer Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic any concessions on behalf of the United States. Berger also warned that Jackson's safety could not be guaranteed. Despite these warnings, Jackson, confident that he could persuade Milsocovic to release the prisoners as a gesture of goodwill, set off on his diplomatic mission. Jackson's confidence was not unfounded and when Jackson returned it was with the three soldiers at his side. The U.S. Senate recognized Jackson's efforts with a commendation.

In May of 1999, Jackson traveled to war-torn Sierra Leone, where he negotiated a cease-fire agreement between Tejan Kabbah, the country's president, and rebel Foday Sankoh. Jackson also negotiated for the release of more than two thousand prisoners of war. One year later, he returned to Sierra Leone to assist once more in the country's peace process. Jackson returned to Africa again in 2004 to negotiate with Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi over the civil war in neighboring Sudan and over Libya's conviction of six foreign medical workers to death for allegedly infecting 400 Libyan children with HIV.

Sought Answers in Suspicious Hanging Death

When teenager Raynard Johnson was found hanging by a belt from the pecan tree in front of his home in Kokomo, Mississippi in 2000, suspicions arose immediately that his death may have been a lynching. Although medical examiners found no evidence of struggle, Johnson's parents could not believe that their son had committed suicide. Jackson did not believe the boy's death was a suicide either. He told Jet, "He had just gotten a computer. He was outgoing. He was in the Top 5 percentile on his test scores. He was very bright....A lot of signs point upwards. He was excited about life."

Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/PUSH launched its own investigation into Johnson's death. Jackson's investigators identified several people who could have been involved in the teenager's death and said that someone may have been angered by Johnson's friendship with two white girls. Authorities, however, said that Johnson's girlfriend had broken up with him shortly before his death and contended that all the evidence was consistent with suicide.

In 2000, Jackson, along with his son, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., published It's About the Money!: How You Can Get Out of Debt, Build Wealth, and Achieve Your Financial Dreams! The book is a how-to guide for financial independence and security. Jackson explained to Mother Jones that economic self-sufficiency is a vital base for the struggle for freedom. "It costs to send children to college," Jackson said. "It costs to have health insurance." Yet, in a culture of credit card debt, so many Americans do not understand basic economics. With his book, Jackson hoped to change that.

Jackson continued his activism into the twenty-first century, with no signs of slowing down. He worked to support Democratic politicians Gray Davis and John Kerry in their unsuccessful bids to remain governor of California and become president of the United States, respectively, and he also helped to oppose a redistricting plan in Texas that would have been favorable to Republicans. In addition, he attended protests in support of striking staff at Yale University, where he was arrested for his actions.

Never Far From Controversy

Jackson has stirred both admiration and criticism. His behavior in the hours immediately following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., was a subject of controversy: Jackson claimed that he had held the dying leader, heard his last words, and had his shirt stained by King's blood. Other SCLC officers present at the murder have disputed those claims. As an organizer Jackson often overstepped his authority in SCLC matters and violated organization policy in a number of his Chicago campaigns. His economic boycotts were criticized by some businessmen as extortion and by some reformers for lacking follow-through. The management of PUSH's people and finances were the subject of close scrutiny and the freewheeling nature of the organization was regularly called into question. Jackson offended some Americans by negotiating with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), Fidel Castro, and the Marxist Sandinista govenrment of Nicaragua. Jackson's connection with the Black Muslim leader and outspoken anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, as well as the candidate's reference to New York City as "Hymietown," outraged Jews.

However, the same driving ambition to achieve success that is the root of Jackson's weaknesses is also the source of his strength. He is a tireless worker who is fiercely committed to his causes, even when bedridden--Jackson suffers from sickle-cell trait. He is an intelligent, creative, and charismatic leader, and an inspirational speaker capable of archiving numerous details, then using them to encapsulate his agenda along with the aspirations of many Americans. He has a flair for the dramatic that infuses an increasingly tedious political process with life. And finally, Jackson acts while others talk of action. He has become the leading spokesman for Americans forgotten by the power brokers of the political process, especially blacks. In a 1996 speech, Jackson said, "If you go along and get along, you're a coward. Only by principled engagement can you be a force for change and hope." Jackson's life has been one of principled engagement.

Awards

Rockefeller grant, c. mid-1960s, Presidential Award, National Medical Association, 1969; Humanitarian Father of the Year, National Father's Day Committee, 1971; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2000; numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Pepperdine University, Oberlin College, Oral Roberts University, Howard, and Georgetown.

Further Reading

Books

• Abernathy, Ralph David, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Harper, 1989.
• Colton, Elizabeth O., The Jackson Phenomenon: The Man, the Power, the Message, Doubleday, 1989.
• Reynolds, Barbara A., Jesse Jackson: America's David, JFJ Associates, 1985.

Periodicals

• Africa News Service, May 24, 1999; May 17, 2000.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, GA), September 30, 2003, p. A14.
• Black Enterprise, October 1998.
• Business Wire, January 5, 2000.
• Christian Science Monitor, August 15, 1989.
• Commonweal, November 7, 1986.
• Ebony, February 1999.
• Harper's Magazine, March 1969.
• Independent (London, England), September 2, 2003, p. 12.
• Jet, July 22, 1996; May 24, 1999; December 27, 1999; June 19, 2000; July, 17, 2000; August 28, 2000; September 4, 2000.
• Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, August 11, 2003.
• Mother Jones, March 2000.
• Newsweek, April 4, 1988; October 16, 1989; January 29, 1990; May 10, 1999.
• New York Times, November 3, 2003.
• United Press International, May 4, 1999; May 10, 1999.
• Vanity Fair, January 1988.
• Vital Speeches, September 15, 1996.

Online

• CNN.com, July 29, 2004. Available at http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/28/dems.main/index.html. August 24, 2004. Available at http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/08/24/libya.jackson/index.html.

— Bryan Ryan and Jennifer M. York

(1941- ), political and civil rights leader. Once a follower and associate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson emerged during the 1970s and 1980s as the most dynamic African-American leader of the post-King era. Born to an unwed mother in Greenville, South Carolina, he was raised in modest circumstances with his stepfather and lived near his more affluent father, witnessing and resenting the privileged circumstances of his half brother. Jackson's success as a student and an athlete led to a scholarship to the University of Illinois, but when he was not allowed to play quarterback, he transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College. Jackson then attended Chicago Theological Seminary and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968.

Jackson met his future wife, Jacqueline Davis, at A&T in 1963, and both became active in the civil rights protests that spread throughout the South. In 1965, Jackson began working with King, and he demonstrated his effectiveness as an organizer when King assigned him to expand the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (sclc) operations in Chicago. He was present when King was assassinated in April 1968. Jackson later became active in numerous efforts, serving as national director of Operation Breadbasket and then leading his own organization, Operation push (People United to Serve Humanity), formed in 1971 to pressure large corporations to provide jobs and economic opportunities for blacks and other minorities.

Responding to the increasing shift to the right in American politics, Jackson began to emphasize economic empowerment rather than traditional civil rights issues. During the late 1970s, he started push-Excel, designed to motivate black students. His rousing oratory, which combined elements of uplift ("I am somebody!") and militancy ("It's nationtime!"), attracted a large popular following. He also made several controversial ventures into international politics, including a meeting in 1979 with the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1983 he secured the release of a captured navy pilot during a trip to Syria.

By the early 1980s, he had become the black leader most capable of staging an effective campaign for the presidency. In his campaign, Jackson sought to appeal to all races and helped form the Rainbow Coalition, which became a base for his 1984 campaign. Hurt politically when a journalist overheard and reported his use of the term Hymies to refer to Jews (he later apologized for the slur), he nevertheless surprised observers when he ran a strong third in the Democratic primaries, garnering over 3 million votes. In 1988, he staged an even more successful campaign, winning 6.7 million votes in the primaries. Although he failed in his quest to gain the vice-presidential nomination, he remained the nation's most prominent black political leader.

Bibliography:

Roger D. Hatch and Frank E. Watkins, eds., Reverend Jesse L. Jackson: Straight from the Heart (1987); Adolph L. Reed, The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon (1987).

Author:

Clayborne Carson

See also Civil Rights Movement; Democratic Party.

Jackson, Jesse Louis, 1941-, African-American political leader, clergyman, and civil-rights activist, b. Greenville, S.C. Raised in poverty, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary (1963-65) and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968. Active in the civil-rights movement, he became a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. He served as executive director (1966-71) of Operation Breadbasket, a program of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that addressed the economic problems of African Americans in northern cities. In 1971 he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an organization to combat racism. Since 1986 he has been president of the National Rainbow Coalition, an independent political organization aimed at uniting disparate groups-racial minorities, the poor, peace activists, and environmentalists. In 1984 and 1988, Jackson, an effective public speaker, campaigned for the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the first African American to contend seriously for that office. He was elected (1990) as a nonvoting member of the Senate from the District of Columbia and has campaigned for its statehood. He has written Legal Lynching (1996), an attack on capital punishment.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Frady (1996); studies by A. L. Reed, Jr. (1986), E. O. Coulton (1989), A. D. Hertzke (1993), and K. L. Stanford (1997).

An African-American clergyman and political leader of the twentieth century. Jackson, a leader in the civil rights movement, has energetically encouraged self-confidence in young people, especially blacks. He ran for president in the primaries of 1984 and 1988.

Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson is a civil rights activist, clergyman, and prominent African American leader in the United States.

Jackson was born October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina. His mother, Helen Burns, was only sixteen when Jackson was born. His father, Noah Louis Robinson, acknowledged Jackson as his son, but because he was married to another woman and had several other children, he was not involved in Jackson's life. When he was three, his mother married Charles Jackson. The family eventually moved out of the poor section of town to a new housing project, where, for the first time, they enjoyed hot and cold running water and an indoor bathroom. Jackson was legally adopted by his stepfather when he was twelve. He has one brother, Charles Jackson, Jr.

Jackson attended the all-black Sterling High School, in Greenville, where he was a star football player. After graduation in 1959, he went north to the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. The following year he transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (North Carolina A&T), a mostly black school in Greensboro. There he met his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, a fellow student who had also grown up in poverty. The couple married December 31, 1962, and have five children: Santita, Jesse Louis, Jr., Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois, and Jacqueline Lavinia.

While at North Carolina A&T, Jackson began the work that would make him a widely recognized civil rights leader. He led a series of protest demonstrations and sit-ins throughout the South and joined one of the first organized groups in the civil rights movement, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

After graduating from college in the fall of 1964, Jackson left the fledgling civil rights movement and moved north again, to attend Chicago Theological Seminary. He immersed himself in his studies, determined to learn how he could bring about change through the ministry. Then, in 1965, the civil rights movement began to gain momentum, and Jackson wanted to be a part of it. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) of Martin Luther King, Jr., and expanded its Operation Breadbasket, an economic campaign that used boycotts and negotiations to secure jobs for minorities. Six months before he was to graduate from the seminary, he left to work full-time for the SCLC. Nevertheless, he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968.

Jackson saw King as his mentor and role model, and he became King's protégé. He worked closely with King and the other SCLC leaders and was with King when King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

In 1969 Jackson organized the first Black Expo, a promotional festival for the companies involved in Operation Breadbasket. The expo was intended to be an annual fund-raiser for the SCLC, but Jackson had quietly incorporated the event independently. SCLC officials were enraged, and Jackson finally left the organization.

In the early 1970s, Jackson formed Operation People United to Serve Humanity (Operation PUSH). He negotiated with large corporations such as the Coca-Cola Company, Heublein, and Ford Motor Company to increase minority employment and minority-owned dealerships and franchises. He also began holding rallies at high schools to raise the self-image of African American students. He stressed the importance of education, personal responsibility, and hard work to achieve one's goals. Jackson's work with teenagers attracted the attention of President Jimmy Carter, whose administration rewarded Jackson with grants and contracts to continue his outreach. He named his school ministry PUSH for Excellence, or PUSH-Excel.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jackson emerged as a preeminent African American leader in the United States. He decided to make a bid for the presidency. He mounted an ambitious voter registration drive throughout the South, and barnstormed through Western Europe enlisting support among U.S. service personnel. In an effort to enhance his image and prove that his expertise extended beyond domestic matters, he traveled to trouble spots such as the Middle East, Latin America, and Cuba to meet with leaders there. In 1983, he negotiated the release of Lieutenant Robert O. Goodman, Jr., a U.S. citizen whose jet had been shot down over Syrian-held territory in Lebanon.

Critics dismissed these activities as opportunistic grandstanding. Particularly troubling to some was Jackson's perceived anti-Semitic bias. During a private conversation in 1984, Jackson referred to Jews as Hymies and to New York as Hymietown. He later apologized. A short time later, Louis Farrakhan, head of the controversial Nation of Islam and a Jackson supporter, threatened the reporter who had written about Jackson's remarks. Jackson later distanced himself from Farrakhan and his organization because of their perceived militant anti-white and anti-Semitic stance.

Jackson placed third in the 1984 presidential primaries, behind former vice president Walter F. Mondale and Colorado senator Gary W. Hart. His delegate votes did not give him the clout he needed to compel the Democrats to accept his controversial platform proposals. Jackson gracefully conceded the nomination to Mondale and gave a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, which was in part a response to his critics:

If in my low moments, in word, deed, or attitude, through some error of temper, taste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived someone's fears, that was not my truest self…. I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.

After the convention, Jackson resumed his duties as head of Operation PUSH. He continued to be active in progressive causes, leading what he called a counterinaugural march and prayer vigil in January 1985, and participating in a reenactment of the civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1985. He also began building toward his second campaign for the presidency. He formed the National Rainbow Coalition, his vision of a modern populist movement comprising blacks, working families, liberal urbanites, Hispanics, women's rights groups, college faculty and students, environmentalists, farmers, and labor unions—a cultural as well as racial alliance searching for alternatives within the Democratic party.

Jackson made another run for president in 1988 and finished second behind Michael Dukakis in the primaries. However, much to his disappointment, he was not chosen as the vice presidential nominee.

After the 1988 election, Jackson moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and was elected one of the city's "shadow senators." In this unpaid, nonvoting position, which was created by the Washington City Council, Jackson represents the district's interests on Capitol Hill. His main responsibility is to lobby Congress for statehood for the nation's capital.

In the mid-1990s Jackson saw the need to change the focus of the civil rights movement. He called for the black community to take action against the violence that was claiming so many of its young people.

Quotes:

"Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow -- red, yellow, brown, black and white -- and we're all precious in God's sight."

"America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth."

"We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams."

"A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live."

"Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive."

"Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville."

See more famous quotes by Jesse Jackson

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