Jesse Jackson

Birth Name:

Jesse Louis Burns

Birth Place:

Greenville, South Carolina, United States

Profession

Actor, Soundtrack

Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 2000
Attended the University of Illinois and graduated from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina with a degree in Sociology in 1964
First became involved with the civil rights movement while attending college in Greensboro, North Carolina
Marched with Dr․ Martin Luther King, Jr․ in Selma, Alabama in 1965 and joined his Southern Christian Leadership Conference that same year
Was the director of Dr․ King's Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Best known as a civil rights activist and Baptist minister who served as a Shadow Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997
Founded Operation PUSH in 1971 and later merged it with the National Rainbow Coalition, which he started in 1984, to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in 1996
Has written several books including "Straight from the Heart" in 1987 and "Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty" in 1995
Campaigned for the U․S․ presidency in 1984, becoming only the second African-American to do so (the first being Shirley Chisholm), and tried again in 1988, when he finished second in the Democratic primaries
Was staying in a hotel room one floor down when Dr․ King was assassinated on his balcony on April 4, 1968

Fast Facts