Jesse Louis Jackson

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. □

JACKSON, JESSE 1941-

Candidate for the democraticpresidential nomination, 1984and 1988

Breaking New Ground

The Reverend Jesse Jackson made history in 1984, when he campaigned to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States. Though Democratic congresswoman Shirley Chisholm became the first black to seek the presidential nomination of a large, national party when she entered some Democratic primaries in 1972, Jackson was the first African American to wage a full-scale campaign to head a major-party ticket.

Background

An illegitimate child born to an impoverished family in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1963. He went on to study at the Chicago Theological Seminary, dropping out in spring 1965, six months before his expected graduation, to become active in the civil rights movement. In 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King made Jackson head of Operation Breadbasket, a group that used boycotts and other sorts of economic pressure to convince businesses to hire black workers.

Operation PUSH

Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968, and in 1971 he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity; later People United to Serve Humanity), which continued the campaign for hiring of black workers, organized the under-paid, and helped minority businesses. In 1975 Jackson expanded PUSH to include PUSH for Excellence (PUSH/Excel), a self-help program for African Americans students living in urban slums. By 1978, with the help of funding from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) under the Carter administration, PUSH/Excel had established programs in several major cities. During the Reagan administration federal funding for PUSH/Excel was cut off as of February 1982, and the program went into a gradual decline. Administration officials pointed to several unfavorable evaluations of PUSH/Excel and vigorously pursued an audit of its finances, which turned up no evidence of illegal activity but faulted the program for inadequate record keeping. Those involved in PUSH/Excel perceived it as an inspirational program designed to motivate parents, students, and educators to work together in defining the needs and goals of individual schools. In contrast federal evaluators had expected national program administrators to define goals and devise specific procedures to implement them. Evaluations of the program were doubtless also colored by the views of the chief investigator, Charles Murray, future author of Losing Ground (1984), in which he argued that the social programs of the 1960s had done poor blacks more harm than good. Jackson took a leave of absence from Operation PUSH when he decided to run for president in 1984 and later resigned.

Running for President

He announced his candidacy on 3 November 1983, criticizing Reagan administration cutbacks in funding for programs that helped minorities and the poor and calling on all Americans who had been victims of discrimination or economic oppression to join his "rainbow coalition." He described his campaign as "growing out of the black experience" but "not for blacks only" and went on to explain: "I can empathize with the plight of Appalachia because I have known poverty. I know the pain of anti-Semitism because I have felt the pain of discrimination." In a candidate profile aired on 9 December 1983 CBS newsman Dan Rather called Jackson one of the most spellbinding orators of our time, "whose appeal to voters goes across racial lines to the young and to those who he says are stuck at the bottom." Jackson, he concluded, "can lay legitimate claim to the King legacy." Jackson's candidacy did not cross racial lines as successfully as Rather predicted—doubtless in part because of his race. Yet some voters were uncertain if Jackson, who had never held political office and had been labeled a sloppy administrator of his poverty programs, was qualified to be president.

Policy Proposals

Jackson put forth a range of proposals that aligned him with the liberal wing of the party, including a major public employment program, a renewal of federal spending on social services, a reduction in defense spending, a nuclear freeze, direct aid for Native Americans, and help for small farmers.

Foreign Policy

On 3 January 1984 Jackson earned positive press when he successfully negotiated the release of black navy pilot Robert Goodman, a resident of New Hampshire who had been shot down over Syria. While Jackson's domestic policy was for the most part in line with the standard liberal Democrat call for compassion and aid for the disadvantaged and needy, his foreign policy, never clearly defined, made many Democrats uneasy. Jackson was open in his support for Third World radical liberation groups such as the Sandinistas in Nicaragua—who, he said, were "on the right side of history"—and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In June 1984, with the nomination already decided, Jackson underlined his Third World sympathies by visiting Cuba, where Fidel Castro expressed his appreciation of Jackson's vocal opposition to the U.S. invasion of Grenada by releasing twenty-two Americans held in Cuban prisons. At the same time Jackson reinforced his radical image by visiting Nicaragua. His controversial policy stands, as well as his race, made him the target of more death threats than any other candidate. Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, reportedly told her children not to stand too close to Jackson at public gatherings lest they be hit by stray bullets.

Charges of Anti-Semitism

Unpopular with Jewish voters ever since his literal embrace of PLO leader Yassir Arafat on a visit to the Middle East in 1979, Jackson was openly accused of anti-Semitism just two weeks before the New Hampshire primary, when the Washington Post revealed that in a private conversation that included one of its reporters, black journalist Milton Coleman, Jackson had called Jews "Hymies" and referred to New York City as "Hymietown." Jackson first denied using the words, then said he did not remember uttering them, and finally said he recalled using them, but it was "not done in a spirit of meanness." The flap might have ended there if it were not for Jackson's association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, an avowed anti-Semite who often traveled with Jackson's entourage and who provided the candidate's bodyguards. Farrakhan fueled the controversy with anti-Semitic remarks on several occasions, and he publicly warned Coleman, "One day we will punish you with death." Jackson disavowed the remark, but, fearing a split in his large and essential black constituency, he did not repudiate Farrakhan. Finally, on 28 June, after Farrakhan was quoted as calling Judaism a "gutter religion," Jackson broke with the Nation of Islam leader, calling his remarks "reprehensible and morally indefensible."

Jackson's Constituency

In 1984 Jackson earned only 5 percent of the white primary vote, a statistic more impressive than it seems at first glance; of the 3.4 million people who voted for him 22 percent (about 788,000) were nonblacks, including significant numbers of Hispanics, Asians, and white liberals, independents, and college graduates. He won 21 percent of the total primary and caucus votes, but because of selection rules he ended up with only 11 percent of the delegates. Most important, however, was his ability to effectively mobilize a large core group of African American supporters, who turned out in record numbers for party caucuses and primaries. The third-place finisher, he arrived at the Democratic National Convention with the backing of a powerful bloc of voters. To maintain their loyalty the party had to accommodate Jackson, whose speech to the convention made it clear that he was ready to broaden his voter appeal and begin again. He reached out to Jewish voters in particular, and he painted a picture of a nation unified in its diversity:

America is not like a blanket.…It is more like a quilt—many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up America's quilt.…

…We are much too intelligent, much too bound by our Judeo-Christian heritage…to go on divided from one another.

Although some of his black supporters were unhappy that Jackson had not taken on the white party establishment for perceived rebuffs to their cause, the speech moved many white delegates to tears.

Running Again

After 1984 Jackson continued campaigning, formally establishing a National Rainbow Coalition and building a grassroots organization. His 1984 campaign staff had been enthusiastic, naive, and disorganized. By 1988 he had aides who could make more efficient use of his time and campaign funds. On his second run for the nomination he emphasized the theme of unity that had proved so effective at the 1984 convention and deemphasized foreign policy, while offering a strong antidrug proposal that appealed to Americans of all races and a wide range of political persuasions. Journalists began reporting that Jackson had "matured."

Finishing Second

Though he still could not attract the working-class whites who make up the backbone of the party, Jackson increased his appeal to white liberals and other nonblacks and ended up in second place. Nearly seven million people voted for him nationwide (to about ten million for Michael Dukakis). As second-place finisher, Jackson felt he had a strong claim on the vice presidential nomination. He was angry when he was passed over for Lloyd Bentsen—and learned about it from the news media rather than Dukakis himself. Dukakis and Jackson patched over their differences for the short term, and Jackson agreed to campaign for the Democratic ticket in the fall, but within weeks of the convention he had become a self-proclaimed "free agent," focusing his speeches on his own political agenda.

Impact

Without ever holding public office Jackson had a profound impact on the Democratic Party in the 1980s while also serving as a constant inspiration and example to the poor and disadvantaged. He has been variously described as egotistical and charismatic, morally committed to social justice but humanly flawed. As his eldest son, Jesse Jr., said at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, he taught his children that the greatest tragedy in life is "not failure but a low aim."

Sources:

Lucius J. Barker and Ronald W. Walters, eds., Jesse Jackson's 1984 Presidential Campaign: Challenge and Change in American Politics (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989);

Elizabeth O. Colton, The Jackson Phenomenon: The Man, The Power, The Message (New York: Doubleday, 1989);

Bob Faw, Thunder in America: The Improbable Presidential Campaign of Jesse Jackson (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1986);

Ernest R. House, Jesse Jackson & the Politics of Charisma: The Rise and Fall of the PUSH/Excel Program (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988).

Jesse Jackson

Born: October 18, 1941
Greenville, South Carolina
African American political leader, religious minister, and orator

Civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson has spent decades in the public eye in support of ending racial and class divisions in America. He is the founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a group that works to improve the lives of people throughout the United States and the world.

Early life and education

Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 18, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina. He was the son of Helen Burns and her married next-door neighbor, Noah Robinson. Jackson was teased by his neighbors and classmates for being "a nobody who had no daddy." Jackson developed a strong desire to succeed and an understanding of the oppressed (those who are treated unjustly). With advice from his grandmother, Jackson overcame his childhood problems, finishing tenth in his high-school class. He earned a football scholarship to attend the University of Illinois in Chicago. Jackson, eager to get away from the prejudice (dislike of people based on their race) and segregation (separation based on race) of the South, traveled north only to find both open and hidden discrimination (unequal treatment) at the university and in other parts of the city.

After several semesters Jackson decided to leave the University of Illinois. He returned to the South and enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (A&T) in Greensboro, North Carolina, an institution for African American students, where he was elected student body president. As a college senior he became a leader in the civil rights movement. Jackson actively encouraged his fellow students to protest against racial injustice by staging repeated demonstrations and boycotts (protests in which, for example, organizers refuse to shop at a certain store in an attempt to get the store to change an unjust policy or position). Jackson graduated in 1964 with a degree in sociology and economics.

Civil rights movement

After graduation Jackson decided to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary. After two and a half years at the school, Jackson left the seminary (a place for religious education) in 1966 before completing his divinity degree (a degree in the study of religion). He also joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) that held nonviolent protests against segregation in the South. In April 1968 many of SCLC's officers—including Jackson—were drawn away from other civil rights protests by a garbage collectors' strike in Memphis, Tennessee. Tragically, King, in his attempt to prevent racial violence in that city, was killed by an assassin's bullet while standing on the balcony of his hotel room.

Jackson later claimed on national television that he had been 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 agreed that this was not true—that Jackson had been in the parking lot facing King when the shooting occurred and had neither climbed the steps to the balcony afterward nor gone to the hospital with King. Whatever the truth of the matter may be, Jackson's appearance on national television the next day with his bloodied shirt brought the horror of the assassination into American homes, making him a well-known national figure. This publicity caused the media to refer to him as the new leader of the civil rights movement. In 1971 Jackson was suspended from the SCLC after its leaders claimed that he was using the organization to further his own personal goals.

After his suspension, Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). 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." Jackson spoke out against racial prejudice and discrimination, military action, and class divisions in America. In 1976 Jackson created PUSH-Excel, a program aimed at encouraging children and teens to succeed. A fiery orator (public speaker), 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."

The rainbow coalition and bids for the presidency

Jackson became involved in international politics when President Jimmy Carter (1924–) approved his visit to South Africa. Jackson attracted huge crowds at rallies, where he denounced (criticized) apartheid, South Africa's political system that prevented the black majority of the population from enjoying the rights and privileges of the white minority. Later in 1979 he toured the Middle East, where he was criticized for embracing Yasir Arafat (1929–), the Palestinian leader who was considered a terrorist (a person who uses terror to force others to act in a certain way) by the American government. These international trips caused Jackson's fame and popularity to grow within the African American community.

As the 1980s began, Jackson was no longer a young man with long hair and gold chains but was instead a more mature figure seeking ways to change the Democratic Party from within. He continued to promote his "rainbow coalition" as a way for all Americans to improve the country. Jackson's support in the African American community also allowed him to influence both local and national elections. Possibly the most important campaign in which he was involved was the election victory of Harold Washington, the first African American mayor of Chicago, Illinois, in 1983. Jackson's ability to convince over one hundred thousand African Americans, many of them youths, to register to vote played a large part in Washington's victory.

Jackson decided to campaign in the 1984 presidential election as a Democrat. His campaign focused on social programs for the poor and disabled, reduced taxes for the poor, increased voting rights, effective programs to improve the job opportunities of women and minorities, and improved civil rights. He called for increased aid to African nations and more consideration of the rights of Arabs. Many senior African American politicians refused to support Jackson, believing that his candidacy would disrupt the Democratic Party and benefit the Republicans. However, many poor African Americans supported him. He received 3.5 million votes, and possibly 2 million of those voters were newly registered. Although his campaign was unsuccessful, Jackson had broken new ground while involving more African Americans in the political process.

After the 1984 election Jackson split his time between working for Operation PUSH in Chicago and his new National Rainbow Coalition, which he began in 1985, in Washington, D.C. (The two organizations later joined together to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.) He ran again for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1988 election. Although his second campaign received much wider support, Jackson finished second to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (1933–), who went on to lose the presidential election. In 1992 he backed Democratic candidate Bill Clinton (1946–) during the presidential campaign. He used his influence to urge African American voters to support Clinton. These efforts helped Clinton win the election and return a Democrat to the White House for the first time in twelve years.

More recent activities

Despite criticism that he was simply a cheerleader for causes and represented style more than substance, Jackson continued to speak out for civil rights and to challenge others to improve themselves. 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 [antislavery] 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."

In November 1999 Jackson came to the defense of six high-school students expelled for fighting in Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur school board expelled the students for two years for their involvement in a brawl during a football game in September 1999. Jackson met with the board to try to reach a compromise that would allow the students to return to regular classes, but the board would only agree to reduce the punishment to one year and to allow the students to attend a different school. As a result, Jackson led a protest march at the school, where he was arrested for criminal trespassing.

Jackson received his master of divinity degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary on June 3, 2000. He had been only three courses short of earning his degree when he left the school more than three decades earlier. On August 9, 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jackson. The medal is the highest honor for civilians (nonmembers of military, police or fire-fighting units) in the United States. Jackson disappointed many of his followers when it became known in 2001 that he had fathered a daughter—who was twenty months old at the time of his announcement—with a woman other than his wife. "I fully accept responsibility, and I am truly sorry for my actions," he said in a written statement. Despite this setback in his personal life, Jackson continues to be a successful advocate for human rights and social change.

For More Information

Haskins, James. Jesse Jackson: Civil Rights Activist. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2000.

Jackson, Jesse. Straight from the Heart. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987.

Landess, Thomas, and Richard Quinn. Jesse Jackson and the Politics of Race. Ottawa, IL: Jameson Books, 1985.

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

JACKSON, JESSE 1941-

Baptist minister and civil rights leader

Links with King

The Reverend Jesse Jackson came a long way very quickly from his beginnings as an illegitimate child in Greenville, South Carolina. His charm, drive, intelligence, and athletic ability led him into a football scholarship at North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, where he became a leader in desegregation activities. His desire to become a Baptist minister led him to Chicago. Jackson first attracted national attention when he led a delegation from the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was a student, to join demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Impressed by the young man's ability, King gave Jackson a job organizing black preachers in Chicago for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). When King moved his campaign north to Chicago in 1966, Jackson moved even closer to the center of the SCLC. He was placed in charge of Operation Breadbasket, which placed economic pressures on businesses to hire black workers. Jackson's highly publicized selective boycotts secured some work for black Chicagoans, and deposits in black-controlled banks sharply increased. He was becoming a public figure at an early age. His commitment to change in the South led him back to the South.

King's Death

Jackson was in Memphis with King in April 1968 to help focus attention on the city's striking sanitation workers. King's close associates were dismayed when Jackson appeared on network television the evening of King's assassination to claim he had been with King at the time of his death.

Suspension

Still working with the SCLC, Jackson had found the spotlight, and he attempted to focus it on his work with Operation Breadbasket. He staged Black Expo '70 in 1970 and repeated this celebration of blackness and black business the following year. When the SCLC discovered Jackson had incorporated Black Expo under his own name, he was suspended from the organization.

Operation PUSH

Jackson then formed his own organization, Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), taking with him most of his staff from the SCLC and local support from his previous work. PUSH aimed to secure jobs for the unemployed, organize people not making a living wage, and support minority-owned businesses. Jackson now took on larger businesses, such as Coca-Cola, Seven-Up, and Burger King, which signed agreements to hire more blacks and work more closely with black businesses.

Radio

Observers believed that the center of Jackson's power at this time was his Saturday radio broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Thousands tuned in to hear him lead his followers in his widely acclaimed chant:

I am—Somebody!

I may be poor, but I am—Somebody!

I may be on welfare, but I am—Somebody!

I may be uneducated, but I am—Somebody!

I may be in jail, but I am—Somebody!

I am—Somebody!

Visibility

Young, handsome, charismatic, and attention seeking, Jackson acquired a national reputation, appearing on talk shows and news programs. He was the topic of cover stories in Playboy, Penthouse, and Time. By middecade he was probably the most visible black leader in the United States.

PUSH for Excellence

In 1975 Jackson began a self-help program for young people in the increasingly black urban slums of the nation. Like many self-help preachers, Jackson believed that opportunities were now open to young blacks if they were willing and prepared to take them. He assured his young audiences, "No one will save us for us but us." Instead of simply blaming white society for their problems, Jackson claimed that blacks must recognize that hard work, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and persistence were essential for success. The target of PUSH for Excellence (PUSH/Excel), as he called his program, was young people, but he hoped to muster the strengths of the black community, its schools, its families, and its churches to give young people the support they needed.

Government Aid

As Jackson took his message around the country, city after city organized local programs. In 1977, with the encouragement of former vice-president Hubert Humphrey, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare began awarding PUSH/Excel millions of dollars, and by 1979 twenty-two programs had been established.

Embracing Arafat

But in September 1979 Jackson attracted significant criticism and negative publicity when he went to the Middle East and a photograph of him embracing Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization appeared in American papers. The already-serious tension between the black and Jewish communities heated up, and Jackson became a target of anger. In many locations his PUSH/Excel program lost local support and went into decline, but his career continued as he sought to lead the black community, as well as advance his own fame in the coming decades. The issue was whether he could lead blacks more effectively as a preacher or as a politician.

Sources:

Ernest R. House, Jesse Jackson and the Politics of Charisma: The Rise and Fall of the PUSH/Excel Program (Boulder, Colo,, & London: Westview Press, 1988);

Gary Wills, Under God: Religion and American Politics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).

Jackson, Jesse Louis (b. 8 Oct. 1941). US civil rights leader He was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at the University of Illinois and the Chicago Theological Seminary. He rose through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to become an aide to Martin Luther King, and stood near King when the latter was shot. After King's death, he began to try to expand the civil rights movement to focus on the economic inequalities in American life for people of all races. He adopted a tone as sensitive to class as to colour, and tried to build up a ‘rainbow coalition’ of all minorities to overcome the traditional White, male power structure in the USA. He became one of the most prominent and influential African Americans in the USA by 1980, and the first serious African American contender for the Presidency when he ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1984 primary elections. In 1988 he came closer to winning the nomination of a major party than any Black man before or since, with the possible exception of Colin Powell in 1996. Under President Clinton, he served on repeated humanitarian missions, securing (amongst others) the return of three US soldiers in Yugoslavia, 1999. In 2001, his image was tarnished by revelations that he was the father of an illegitimate child, as well as of financial irregularities in some of his organizations. Nevertheless, he continued to be one of the most prominent and popular African American leaders.

Jesse Louis Jackson 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).

Jackson, Jesse Louis (1941– ) US politician and civil rights activist. He worked with Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Jackson served as national director (1967–71) of Operation Breadbasket, an economic arm of the SCLC. In 1971, he formed Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) to combat racism in Chicago. Jackson mounted unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. In 1986 he became president of the National Rainbow Coalition, which merged with PUSH to form the Rainbow/PUSH coalition in 1996.