Jesse Jackson Biography
Jesse Louis Jackson, popularly known as Jesse Jackson is an American civil rights activist, a politician, and a Baptist minister. From 1991 till 1997, Jackson served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia, and in 1984 and 1988 he was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. In addition, Jesse is currently the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH.
Jesse Jackson Age
Born on October 8, 1941, Jesse is currently 79 years old as of 2020. He celebrates his birthday every October 8th. Louis will be turning 80 years as of October 2021.
Jesse Jackson Nationality
Being born in Greenville, South Carolina, U.S. Jesse is of American nationality. His birth sign is Libra.
Jesse Jackson Family
He was born to Noah Louis Robinson and Helen Burns who was a high school student by then aged 16 years old. His father, Noah Robinson was her neighbor who was married, by then he was 33 years old. Jesse’s family had some roots in Cherokee.
His father, a former professional boxer, was an employee of a textile brokerage and a well-known figure in the black community. Jackson’s mother then married Charles Henry Jackson, a post office maintenance worker, one year later after his birth. Charles Henry later adopted the boy. They gave him his stepfather’s name in the adoption, but as Jackson grew up, he maintained a close relationship with Robinson. Jesse took both of them to be his fathers.
Jackson has only two siblings namely Chuck Jackson and Noah Robinson Jr.
Jesse Jackson Education
Jesse Jackson went to the racially segregated Sterling High School in Greenville. in the school, he was elected student class president, earned letters in baseball, football and basketball, and also finished tenth in his class.
Immediately after graduating from high school in 1959, Jackson was given a contract from a minor league professional baseball team but he rejected because he wanted to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship.
He then transferred to North Carolina A&T, a historically black university in Greensboro, North Carolina immediately after finishing his second semester at that predominantly white school. in 1964, Jackson graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology and went on to Chicago Theological Seminary on a scholarship and ordained a minister in 1968.
Jesse Jackson Wife|Kids|Affair
Jesse married Jacqueline Lavinia Brown on December 31, 1962. They are together blessed with five kids namely Santita (1963), Jesse Jr. (1965), Jonathan Luther (1966), Yusef DuBois (1970), and Jacqueline Lavinia (1975). However, in 2001, it was revealed Jackson had an affair with a staffer, Karin Stanford, that resulted in the birth of a daughter Ashley in May 1999.
Jesse Jackson Net Worth
As of 2020, he has an estimated net worth of $10 million. Details about his properties, cars, and houses he owns are not yet revealed and will be updated as soon as possible.
Jesse Jackson 1988 Presidential Campaign
This was Jesse’s second campaign for President of the United States. This time, his successes in the past made him a more credible candidate and he was both better financed and better organized. He captured 6.9 million votes and won 11 contests: seven primaries (Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, and Virginia) and four caucuses (Delaware, Michigan, South Carolina, and Vermont)
Jesse Jackson Civil Rights
He was elected student body president while at A&T and became active in local civil rights protests against segregated libraries, theaters, and restaurants. He dropped out in 1966, three classes short of earning his master’s degree, to focus full-time on the Civil Rights Movement. In the greater part of his years and his political career, he has worked on fighting for civil rights through civil rights movements especially fighting for the black community of the United States.
Jesse Jackson Accomplishments
During the 1980s, he achieved wide fame as a politician. Jesse became a well-known spokesman for civil rights issues among them he mediated in a firefighter’s strike. He served as a speaker for The International Peace Foundation in 2009 on the topic “Building a culture of peace and development in a globalized world”.
In addition, Jackson became active in local civil rights protests against segregated libraries, theaters, and restaurants. He dropped three classes short of earning his master’s degree in order to focus full-time on the civil rights movement in the year 1966. In 1968, Jesse has ordained a minister and was awarded a Master of Divinity Degree in 2000 based on his previous credits earned plus his life experience and subsequent work.
Jesse Jackson, I Am Somebody
I Am – Somebody is a poem that Jackson recited with the assembled crowd at Los Angeles Coliseum for the famous Wattstax concert in 1972.
Jesse Jackson Keep Hope Alive
Jesse Jackson Sick
Back in November 2017, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Jackson said that the recognition of the effects of this disease on him was painful. He, however, said that it was not a sop sign to him but instead a signal that he must make lifestyle changes and dedicate himself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease’s progression. In addition, Jesse said that he will also dedicate his remaining years to help find a cure for the disease affecting 60 million Americans every year.
Jesse Jackson Speech
Here is a piece from his speech to the Democratic National Convention that was held on Wednesday, July 18, 1984.
“Tonight we come together bound by our faith in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great party, the Democratic Party, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just and peaceful course.
This is not a perfect party. We are not perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission: our mission to feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race. “(Applause)
“We are gathered here this week to nominate a candidate and adopt a platform that will expand, unify, direct and inspire our Party and the Nation to fulfill this mission.
My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised. They are restless and seek relief. They’ve voted in record numbers. They have invested faith, hope, and trust that they have in us. The Democratic Party must send them a signal that we care. I pledge my best to not let them down.”
Jesse Jackson Quotes
- Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.
- Your children need your presence more than your presents.
- If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.
- Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you to change.
- Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes but morning comes… Keep hope alive.
- Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
- Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
- Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.
- At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.
- America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.