The American Civil Rights Movement

A man with a mission

Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 8, 1941in Greenville, South Carolina. Jesse Jackson in later years became a student at the University of Illinois were he played on a football scholarship and later went to North Carolina A&T State University. He went on to attend Chicago Theological Seminary While attending college he became involved in the civil rights movement in 1965. He joined Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conferenceduring a demonstration in Selma,NC.. Jesse Jackson began his activits career as a student leader in the sit-in movement and later in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. He went on to direct Operation Breadbasket and founded Operation PUSH in Chicago, organizations of economic empowerment aimed at expanding educational and economic opportunities for disadvantaged and minority communities. In 1986, Jesse Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition of which he is still President of the organization.

Jackson's launch into history

As President of the National Rainbow Coalition,he turned the Coalition into one of America's foremost political figures. And in the past three decades he has played a major role in many movements that strenghten empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. Reverend Jesses Jackson has been called the "conscience of the nation" and "the great unifier," challenging America's justice and humane priorities, and bringing people together on common ground across racical lines and barriers, class, gender, and beliefs. Reverend Jackson has been advocating for national health care, an supportive in the fight on drugs,and dialogue with the Soviet Union, and negotiations in the Middle East. His stand against apartheid was strong and held wieght in South Africa in 1984 made it an issue on the national conscience of the situation. Jesse Jackson's two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984 campaign won 3.5 million votes, registered over a million new voters, and helped the Democratic Party regain control of the Senate in 1986.

The strength of the man

A hallmark of Reverend Jackson's work has been his power. He was the first American to bring hostages out of Kuwait and Iraq in 1990. Then an impressive victory in 1990, Jesse Jackson was elected to the post of U.S. Senator from Washington, D.C. Reverend Jackson also the authored two books:

Keep Hope Alive

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