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The Great Unifier
Background:
The founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Jesse
Jackson is one of the foremost civil rights, religious and political
figures in the Unites States. Over the past forty years, he has
played an important role in almost every movement for empowerment,
civil rights, peace, gender equivalence, and economic and social
justice. As one of America's noted and influential politicians, he
has had a constant presence on the U.S. political landscape and is
recognized for helping advance the involvement of minorities in
politics. He was also a candidate for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1984 and 1988. Jackson has been called the “Conscience
of the Nation” and “the Great Unifier.”
Jackson, who was named AP-AOL's “The Most Important Black
Leader” in 2006, has received many awards and honors for his
work in civil rights and for peaceful social action. In 1991, the
U.S. Post Office put his likeness on a pictorial postal cancellation
that made him the second living person to earn such an honor. He has
been repeatedly included in the Gallup List of the “Ten Most
Respected Americans” and has been handed the prestigious NAACP
Spingarn Award. He also has amassed countless honors from grassroots,
civic and community organizations from coast to coast. In 2000,
Jackson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton. The recipient of
more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees, Reverend Jackson often gives
speeches at major colleges and universities and has spoken at Howard,
Yale, Princeton, Morehouse, Harvard, Columbia and Stanford.
From 1992 to 2000, Jackson hosted CNN's “Both Sides with
Jesse Jackson.” He writes a weekly column that is syndicated by
the Chicago Tribune and Los Angles Times. He has published two books,
“Keep Hope Alive” (1989) and “Straight From the
Heart” (1987). He also co-wrote the books “Legal
Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty” (1996) and
“It’s About The Money” (1999, co-written with his
son, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.).
As for his personal life, Jackson is married to Jacqueline Lavinia
Brown and has five children with her. His son, Jesse Jackson Jr., is
a U.S. Congressman. Despite his marriage, Jackson was involved in an
affair with a staffer named Karin Stanford and they had a daughter,
Ashley, in 1999. The scandal was revealed in 2001 and led to
Jackson's short-hiatus from activism. CNN reported that in August of
1999, The Rainbow Push Coalition had paid Stanford $15,000 in moving
expenses and $21,000 in payment for contracting work. Apart from the
1999 Rainbow Coalition payments, Jackson gives $3,000 per month for
child support.
Student Athlete
Childhood and Family:
Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville,
South Carolina, to Helen Burns. His biological father, Noah Louis
Robinson, an ex-professional boxer and an influential figure in the
black community, married another woman when Jesse was born. Two years
after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, a
postal worker, who adopted Jesse in 1957.
Growing up in an area loaded with segregation and discrimination,
Jesse attended Sterling High School, a segregated high school in
Greenville, where he excelled academically and athletically. His
athletic prowess attracted the attention of a professional baseball
team, which then offered Jesse a contract. He declined the offer and
attended the racially integrated University of Illinois on a football
scholarship. He transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University (A&T) after a year due to the school's
racial biases. At college, Jesse again showed his outstanding
athletic and academic abilities. He later studied at the Chicago
Theological Seminary, but postponed his studies when he started
working full-time in the Civil Rights Movement. He earned his Master
of Divinity Degree in 2000.
Jesse was married to his college sweetheart, Jacqueline Lavinia
Brown, on December 31, 1962. The couple has three sons, Jesse
Jackson, Jr. (born 1965), Jonathan Jackson and Yusef DuBois Jackson,
and two daughters, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson, Jr. and Santita
Jackson. Jesse also has a daughter named Ashley (born in May 1999)
with Karin Stanford.
Presidential Candidate
Career:
Jesse Jackson displayed his interest in activism while a student.
In 1965, he took part in Martin Luther King Jr.’s movement in
Selma, Alabama, and upon returning from Selma, devoted himself to
King’s endeavor to set up the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) in Chicago. He was quickly appointed the head of
the SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and was promoted to
national director the following year. An avid devotee of King, he was
even present when King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
After the murder, Jackson began his increasingly conflict with
Ralph Abernathy, the successor of King as head of the national SCLC,
that culminated in December 1971 when Abernathy suspended Jackson for
“administrative improprieties and repeated acts of infraction
of organizational policy.” Jackson resigned and that same month
founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in Chicago.
In 1984, Reverend Jackson established the National Rainbow Coalition,
a national social justice organization based in Washington, D.C. that
dedicates itself to political empowerment, education and changing
public policy. In 1996, the Rainbow Coalition merged with Operation
PUSH to create the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Aside from his work in civil rights, Jackson has advocated such
issues as the war on drugs, national health care, good relations with
the Soviet Union and the Middle East, as well as ending apartheid in
South Africa, among others. He also has had a crucial part in
international affairs as a diplomat. His efforts include securing the
release of 48 Cuban and Cuban-American prisoners and the release of a
captured American pilot, Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who was
being held by the Syrian government (both in 1984). It was his later
attempt that helped boost Jackson's popularity as an American patriot
and served as a springboard for his 1984 presidential run. Running as
a Democrat, Jackson became the second African-American to climb a
nationwide campaign for President of United States and ended up in
the third place after Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President
Walter Mondale, who finally won the nomination. The civil rights
leader made his second attempt in 1988 when he once again offered
himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential
nomination. He lost to Michael Dukakis.
Despite his unsuccessful attempts as a presidential candidate,
Jackson was voted one of Washington's two “Shadow Senators”
in 1990. In October 1997, President Clinton and Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright appointed Jackson as “Special Envoy of the
President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in
Africa.” This official position allowed him to travel to
several countries on the African continent and meet with national
leaders like President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South
Africa, His Excellency Daniel T. Arap Moi of Kenya, and President
Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia. Jackson's close relationship with
Clinton was further established when the president was involved in a
scandal with Monica Lewinsky. Jackson was an important presence by
the President's side during the scandal and prayed with the Clinton
family in August 1998 when Clinton disclosed his affair on national
television.
In 2001, Jackson was forced to withdraw from activism for a short
period of time following an affair with a staff member. More
recently, he is known for having a key role in the scandal created by
comedic actor Michael Richards' racially provocative comments in
November 2006. A few days after the incident, Richard called Jackson
to apologize, which Jackson accepted, and met with him publicly as a
means of resolving the situation. Despite this, Jackson requested a
ban on purchases of the newly released Season 7 DVD of “Seinfeld,”
a TV show where Richards starred. Jackson also teamed up with other
black leaders in a call for the elimination of the “N-word”
throughout the showbiz industry.
More recently, In June 2007, Jackson was arrested in relation with
a crowd protesting at a gun store in a poor suburb of Chicago,
Illinois. It was reported that Jackson refused to stop blocking the
front entrance of the store and let customers pass. He was charged
with one count of criminal trespass to property.
Awards:
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