Black History Month: Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, who ran for President twice, in 1984 and in 1988. In 1988 he finished second in the race for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination, both in primary votes and in convention delegates. He was also present in Memphis, one floor below, when Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed.
He was born with the name Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. His mother was Helen Burns, a 16-year-old high school student, and his father was her 33-year-old married neighbor, Noah Louis Robinson, a former professional boxer who was worked for a textile brokerage. A year after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, a post office maintenance worker who later adopted the child. Jesse was given his stepfather's surname in the adoption, but he also maintained a close relationship with Robinson.
He was raised in a time of Jim Crow segregation laws. He attended the racially segregated Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was elected student class president and played baseball, football and basketball. Upon graduation from high school in 1959, he passed up an offer from a minor league professional baseball team in order to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. Following his second semester, he transferred to the North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, North Carolina. According to Jackson, he changed schools because racial prejudice prevented him from playing quarterback and limited his participation on a competitive public-speaking team. While attending A&T, Jackson played quarterback and was elected student body president. He was active in local civil rights protests against segregated libraries, theaters and restaurants. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology in 1964 and then attended the Chicago Theological Seminary on a scholarship, but dropped out in 1966, three classes short of earning his master's degree.
Jackson became an ordained minister in 1968, and in 2000, was awarded his Master of Divinity Degree based on his previous credits earned and his subsequent work. It was in the mid 1960s that he began his affiliation with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, Jackson participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by James Bevel and Dr. King and other civil rights leaders. Jackson was given a role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assigned the task of establishing a frontline office for the SCLC in Chicago. In 1966, Jackson was chosen to head the Chicago branch of the SCLC's economic arm, called Operation Breadbasket. He was promoted to national director in 1967. Under Jackson's leadership, he organized boycotts by black consumers against white-owned businesses to hire African-Americans and to purchase goods and services from their businesses.
Jackson was present with Dr. King on April 4, 1968 when King was shot on the balcony of a motel in Memphis. Jackson was in the parking lot one floor below. After King's death, Jackson worked on SCLC's Poor People's Crusade in Washington, D.C., and managed its 15-acre tent city. There was said to be tension between Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, King's successor as chairman of the SCLC. In the spring of 1971, Abernathy ordered Jackson to move the national office of Operation Breadbasket from Chicago to Atlanta and sought to place another person in charge of local Chicago activities. Jackson refused to move. In December 1971, Jackson and Abernathy had a falling out, after Abernathy questioned the handling of receipts from the Black Expo, an event Jackson had organized in Chicago. Abernathy suspended Jackson as leader of Operation Breadbasket. As a result, Jackson, his entire Breadbasket staff, and 30 of the 35 board members resigned from the SCLC and began planning a new organization.
The new organization was called People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH). It officially began operations on December 25, 1971. Jackson later changed the name to People United to Serve Humanity. Jackson wanted to have Operation PUSH be politically active and pressure politicians to work to improve economic opportunities for poor people of all races. In 1978 Jackson called for a closer relationship between African Americans and the Republican Party. He said, "Black people need the Republican Party to compete for us so we can have real alternatives. The Republican Party needs black people if it is ever to compete for national office."
In 1984, Jackson organized the Rainbow Coalition. He resigned his post as president of Operation PUSH in 1984 to run for president of the United States. On November 3, 1983, Jackson announced that he was campaigning for President of the United States in the 1984 election, making him the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for president. In the Democratic Party primaries, Jackson, had been considered by many to be a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination. He surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson received 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984, and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi. More Virginia caucus-goers supported Jesse Jackson than any other candidate, but Walter Mondale won more Virginia delegates.
During the campaign Jackson was criticized for referring to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown" in remarks to a Washington Post reporter. Jackson mistakenly believed that he was speaking off the record. Matters were made worse when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan publicly declared, in Jackson's presence, that if any Jews harmed Jackson, "it will be the last one you harm." Jackson made a public apology for his remarks, but would not denounce Farrakhan's warning. Jackson made his apology during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue. Other anti-Semitic remarks were attributed to Jackson, including a statement that President Richard Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five of his top advisors are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia". He also said that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust" and also said that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs".
In 1988, Jackson once again ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Once again most political analysts give him little chance of being nominated, This time however he was better financed and better organized than in 1984. In early 1988, Jackson organized a rally at the former American Motors assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, approximately two weeks after new owner Chrysler announced it would close the plant by the end of the year. In his speech, Jackson spoke out against Chrysler's decision. As a result, the UAW Local 72 union voted to endorse his candidacy. For a brief period, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination. But Jackson's campaign suffered a significant setback less than two weeks after the UAW endorsement when he narrowly lost the Colorado primary to Michael Dukakis. He was defeated handily the following day in the Wisconsin primary by Dukakis. These two victories established Dukakis as the clear Democratic frontrunner, and he went on to claim the party's nomination, but lost the general election in November.
At the end of the Democratic primary season, Jackson had 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). Jackson also won victories in Alaska's caucuses and Texas's local conventions, despite losing the Texas primary.
In the mid-1990s, Jackson was approached about being the United States Ambassador to South Africa by President Bill Clinton, but he declined the opportunity. Instead he helped his son Jesse Jackson Jr. run for the United States House of Representatives. Jackson was critical of the moderate policies of Bill Clinton, and even contemplated challenging Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination in 1996. But Jackson became closer to Clinton, especially after his son became a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.
On May 2, 1999, during the Kosovo war, three US soldiers who had been held captive were released as a result of talks with Jackson. Jackson's negotiation was not sanctioned by the Clinton Administration. On January 20, 2001, Bill Clinton's final day in office, Jackson had petitioned Clinton for the pardons of Congressman Mel Reynolds, John Bustamante, and Dorothy Rivers, all of which were approved. Jackson's request for a fourth pardon for his half-brother Noah Robinson, who had been convicted of murdering Leroy Barber and sentenced to life imprisonment, was not approved.
In March 2007, Jackson declared his support for then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 democratic primaries. But he was later critical for Obama over a number of incidents. On July 6, 2008, during an interview with Fox News, a microphone picked up Jackson whispering to fellow guest Reed Tuckson: "See, Barack's been, ahh, talking down to black people on this faith-based. I want to cut his nuts off." When this became public, Jackson apologized and reiterated his support for Obama. He commended Obama's 2012 decision to support gay marriage.
In November 2017, Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
He was born with the name Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. His mother was Helen Burns, a 16-year-old high school student, and his father was her 33-year-old married neighbor, Noah Louis Robinson, a former professional boxer who was worked for a textile brokerage. A year after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, a post office maintenance worker who later adopted the child. Jesse was given his stepfather's surname in the adoption, but he also maintained a close relationship with Robinson.
He was raised in a time of Jim Crow segregation laws. He attended the racially segregated Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was elected student class president and played baseball, football and basketball. Upon graduation from high school in 1959, he passed up an offer from a minor league professional baseball team in order to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. Following his second semester, he transferred to the North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, North Carolina. According to Jackson, he changed schools because racial prejudice prevented him from playing quarterback and limited his participation on a competitive public-speaking team. While attending A&T, Jackson played quarterback and was elected student body president. He was active in local civil rights protests against segregated libraries, theaters and restaurants. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology in 1964 and then attended the Chicago Theological Seminary on a scholarship, but dropped out in 1966, three classes short of earning his master's degree.
Jackson became an ordained minister in 1968, and in 2000, was awarded his Master of Divinity Degree based on his previous credits earned and his subsequent work. It was in the mid 1960s that he began his affiliation with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, Jackson participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by James Bevel and Dr. King and other civil rights leaders. Jackson was given a role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assigned the task of establishing a frontline office for the SCLC in Chicago. In 1966, Jackson was chosen to head the Chicago branch of the SCLC's economic arm, called Operation Breadbasket. He was promoted to national director in 1967. Under Jackson's leadership, he organized boycotts by black consumers against white-owned businesses to hire African-Americans and to purchase goods and services from their businesses.
Jackson was present with Dr. King on April 4, 1968 when King was shot on the balcony of a motel in Memphis. Jackson was in the parking lot one floor below. After King's death, Jackson worked on SCLC's Poor People's Crusade in Washington, D.C., and managed its 15-acre tent city. There was said to be tension between Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, King's successor as chairman of the SCLC. In the spring of 1971, Abernathy ordered Jackson to move the national office of Operation Breadbasket from Chicago to Atlanta and sought to place another person in charge of local Chicago activities. Jackson refused to move. In December 1971, Jackson and Abernathy had a falling out, after Abernathy questioned the handling of receipts from the Black Expo, an event Jackson had organized in Chicago. Abernathy suspended Jackson as leader of Operation Breadbasket. As a result, Jackson, his entire Breadbasket staff, and 30 of the 35 board members resigned from the SCLC and began planning a new organization.
The new organization was called People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH). It officially began operations on December 25, 1971. Jackson later changed the name to People United to Serve Humanity. Jackson wanted to have Operation PUSH be politically active and pressure politicians to work to improve economic opportunities for poor people of all races. In 1978 Jackson called for a closer relationship between African Americans and the Republican Party. He said, "Black people need the Republican Party to compete for us so we can have real alternatives. The Republican Party needs black people if it is ever to compete for national office."
In 1984, Jackson organized the Rainbow Coalition. He resigned his post as president of Operation PUSH in 1984 to run for president of the United States. On November 3, 1983, Jackson announced that he was campaigning for President of the United States in the 1984 election, making him the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for president. In the Democratic Party primaries, Jackson, had been considered by many to be a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination. He surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson received 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984, and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi. More Virginia caucus-goers supported Jesse Jackson than any other candidate, but Walter Mondale won more Virginia delegates.
During the campaign Jackson was criticized for referring to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown" in remarks to a Washington Post reporter. Jackson mistakenly believed that he was speaking off the record. Matters were made worse when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan publicly declared, in Jackson's presence, that if any Jews harmed Jackson, "it will be the last one you harm." Jackson made a public apology for his remarks, but would not denounce Farrakhan's warning. Jackson made his apology during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue. Other anti-Semitic remarks were attributed to Jackson, including a statement that President Richard Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five of his top advisors are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia". He also said that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust" and also said that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs".
In 1988, Jackson once again ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Once again most political analysts give him little chance of being nominated, This time however he was better financed and better organized than in 1984. In early 1988, Jackson organized a rally at the former American Motors assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, approximately two weeks after new owner Chrysler announced it would close the plant by the end of the year. In his speech, Jackson spoke out against Chrysler's decision. As a result, the UAW Local 72 union voted to endorse his candidacy. For a brief period, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination. But Jackson's campaign suffered a significant setback less than two weeks after the UAW endorsement when he narrowly lost the Colorado primary to Michael Dukakis. He was defeated handily the following day in the Wisconsin primary by Dukakis. These two victories established Dukakis as the clear Democratic frontrunner, and he went on to claim the party's nomination, but lost the general election in November.
At the end of the Democratic primary season, Jackson had 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). Jackson also won victories in Alaska's caucuses and Texas's local conventions, despite losing the Texas primary.
In the mid-1990s, Jackson was approached about being the United States Ambassador to South Africa by President Bill Clinton, but he declined the opportunity. Instead he helped his son Jesse Jackson Jr. run for the United States House of Representatives. Jackson was critical of the moderate policies of Bill Clinton, and even contemplated challenging Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination in 1996. But Jackson became closer to Clinton, especially after his son became a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois.
On May 2, 1999, during the Kosovo war, three US soldiers who had been held captive were released as a result of talks with Jackson. Jackson's negotiation was not sanctioned by the Clinton Administration. On January 20, 2001, Bill Clinton's final day in office, Jackson had petitioned Clinton for the pardons of Congressman Mel Reynolds, John Bustamante, and Dorothy Rivers, all of which were approved. Jackson's request for a fourth pardon for his half-brother Noah Robinson, who had been convicted of murdering Leroy Barber and sentenced to life imprisonment, was not approved.
In March 2007, Jackson declared his support for then-Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 democratic primaries. But he was later critical for Obama over a number of incidents. On July 6, 2008, during an interview with Fox News, a microphone picked up Jackson whispering to fellow guest Reed Tuckson: "See, Barack's been, ahh, talking down to black people on this faith-based. I want to cut his nuts off." When this became public, Jackson apologized and reiterated his support for Obama. He commended Obama's 2012 decision to support gay marriage.
In November 2017, Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.