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The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders and spokespersons for African Americans, was born to a teenage single mother in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 8, 1941. After attending the University of Illinois and graduating from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, he devoted his energies to the civil rights movement by organizing sit-ins, marches, and other events with the goal of ending segregation. In 1965 he joined with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Throughout the 1960s he was especially active in Chicago, particularly in leading the SCLC's Operation Breadbasket, which pressured businesses to hire more minority employees. In 1971, frustrated with the conservatism of the SCLC and its leader, Ralph Abernathy, he resigned to form People United to Save Humanity (PUSH).

The theme that has dominated Jesse Jackson's public life is racial and social equality. This theme runs through his speeches and published writings, including his speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention and an article he wrote for Ebony magazine in 2005. Throughout his career, Jackson kept the pressure on in his speeches and writing. He challenged white America to recognize the civil and economic rights of the African American community. He also challenged African Americans to assert their rights and to look to their own development. In this way he became one of the most prominent--if not the most prominent-- civil rights advocates of his generation.

Meanwhile, in 1968, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Jackson entered the political arena with a run for the presidency in 1984, only the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for the presidency. He surprised observers by winning 3.3 million votes in the Democratic Party's primaries, finishing third behind Gary Hart and the eventual nominee, Walter Mondale.

That year, too, he formed an organization called the Rainbow Coalition in an effort to unite a "rainbow" of minorities, the poor and working class, gays, and other oppressed groups in a political movement; the Rainbow Coalition and PUSH would merge in 1996. He carried his message of affirmative action, voting rights, social programs, and the war on drugs into the 1988 presidential campaign. If the success of his 1984 campaign was surprising, his run in 1988 stunned many observers by more than doubling his previous results. In his 1988 speech "The Struggle Continues," he outlines many of his social preoccupations.

Throughout the 1990s Jackson continued to speak out on social concerns while serving a six-year term as a "shadow senator" in Washington, D.C. This was a post created by the district to push for statehood. After his term expired in 1996, Jackson turned his attention to American corporations, working to persuade them to include more minorities in higher level positions. Whenever newsworthy events occurred that had a bearing on race relations or the rights and condition of the African American community, Jackson spoke out. He remained in the public eye as a television and radio-show host and with speeches and magazine articles, such as his 2005 article in Ebony magazine, "The Fight for Civil Rights Continues."

References:

1. Abernathy, Ralph David. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.

2. Bruns, Roger. Jesse Jackson: A Biography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005.

3. Colton, Elizabeth O. The Jackson Phenomenon: The Man, the Power, the Message. New York: Doubleday, 1989.

4. Frady, Marshall. Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.

5. Henry, Charles P. Jesse Jackson: The Search for Common Ground. Oakland, Calif.: BlackScholar Press, 1991.

6. House, Ernest R. Jesse Jackson and the Politics of Charisma. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1988.

7. Reed, Adolph L. The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon: The Crisis of Purpose in Afro-American Politics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986.

8. Reynolds, Barbara A. Jesse Jackson: America's David. Washington, D.C.: JFJ Associates, 1985.

9. Stanford, Karin L. Beyond the Boundaries: Reverend Jesse Jackson in International Affairs. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

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