His mother eventually married and became a successful hairdresser while his stepfather, a postal employee, adopted Jackson in 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. 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.
Much of the open discrimination in the South fell before the onslaught of these student demonstrations. In the spring of 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, 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 , Jackson was suspended from the SCLC after its leaders claimed that he was using the organization to further his own personal agenda. 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.
He became a household name throughout the nation with his slogan "I Am Somebody". By the mid '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.
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.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson explains how the legacy of racism affects the progress of African Americans. Jesse Jackson and Rev. James Meeks left field questions after Jackson's annual Dr. Bobby Rush looks on. Skip to main content. Search WTTW:. Achieving the Dream: Rev. Source: Chicago Defender Archives. Enter the password that accompanies your username. His mother later remarried Charles Henry Jackson, who formally adopted Jackson and his brother Charles.
Jackson received his high school diploma from Sterling High School in Greenville, and in , he received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
He was an honor student and president of his student body. In , Jackson helped to organize several sit-ins, desegregating local restaurants and theaters in Greensboro. In , he also served as a delegate at the Young Democrats National Convention. He then received a Rockefeller grant to begin his postgraduate studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. In , Jackson left the seminary to join Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
At this time, Jackson became an ordained minister, although he had not returned to the seminary. In , Dr. The goal of Operation Breadbasket was to foster the economy of African American business owners and provide employment growth for African American workers.
Over the next decade, Jackson continued his involvement with local, national, and international politics.
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