Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson[1] (né Burns; born October 8, 1941)[1] is an American civil rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. Beginning as a young protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, Jackson maintained his status as a prominent civil rights leader throughout his political and theological career for over seven decades. He served from 1991 to 1997 as a shadow delegate and senator for the District of Columbia. Jackson is the father of former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. and current U.S. Representative Jonathan Jackson.
This article is about the civil rights activist. For his son, a former U.S. Representative from Illinois, see Jesse Jackson Jr. For other uses, see Jesse Jackson (disambiguation).
Jesse Jackson
Seat established
Jackson began his activism in the 1960s and founded the organizations that merged to form the Rainbow/PUSH organization. Extending his activism into international matters beginning in the 1980s, he became a critic of the Reagan administration and launched a presidential campaign in 1984. Initially seen as a fringe candidate, Jackson finished in third place for the Democratic nomination, behind former Vice President Walter Mondale and Senator Gary Hart. He continued his activism for the next three years, and mounted a second bid for president in 1988. Exceeding expectations once again, Jackson finished as the runner-up to Governor of Massachusetts Michael Dukakis.
Jackson never sought the presidency again, but was elected to the United States Senate in 1990 for the District of Columbia, for which he would serve one term as a shadow delegate during the Bush and Clinton administrations. Initially a critic of President Bill Clinton, he became a supporter. Jackson hosted Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000. He has been a critic of police brutality, the Republican Party, and conservative policies, and is regarded as one of the most influential African-American activists of the 21st century.
International activism
Jackson's influence extended to international matters in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1983, he traveled to Syria to secure the release of a captured American pilot, Navy Lt. Robert Goodman, who was being held by the Syrian government. Goodman had been shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country. After Jackson made a dramatic personal appeal to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Goodman was released. The Reagan administration was initially skeptical about Jackson's trip, but after Jackson secured Goodman's release, Reagan welcomed Jackson and Goodman to the White House on January 4, 1984.[31] This helped to boost Jackson's popularity as an American patriot and served as a springboard for his 1984 presidential run. In June 1984 Jackson negotiated the release of 22 Americans being held in Cuba after an invitation by Cuban president Fidel Castro.[32]
On the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Jackson made a trip to Iraq to plead with Saddam Hussein for the release of foreign nationals held there as a "human shield", securing the release of several British and 20 American individuals.[33][34][35]
In 1997, Jackson traveled to Kenya to meet with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi as United States President Bill Clinton's special envoy for democracy to promote free and fair elections. In April 1999, during the Kosovo War and NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, he traveled to Belgrade to negotiate the release of three U.S. POWs captured on the Macedonian border while patrolling with a UN peacekeeping unit. He met with then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević, who later agreed to release the three men.[36][37] Jackson's negotiation was not sanctioned by the Clinton administration.[37]
His international efforts continued into the 2000s. On February 15, 2003, Jackson spoke in front of over an estimated one million people in Hyde Park, London at the culmination of the anti-war demonstration against the imminent invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and the United Kingdom.[38] In November 2004 Jackson visited senior politicians and community activists in Northern Ireland in an effort to encourage better cross-community relations and rebuild the peace process and restore the governmental institutions of the Belfast Agreement.[39]
In August 2005 Jackson traveled to Venezuela to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, following controversial remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson that implied that Chávez should be assassinated. Jackson condemned Robertson's remarks as immoral. After meeting with Chávez and addressing the Venezuelan Parliament, Jackson said there was no evidence that Venezuela posed a threat to the U.S. He also met representatives from the Venezuelan African and indigenous communities.[40][41] In 2013, Jackson attended Chávez's funeral.[42][43] He told Wolf Blitzer that "democracies mature" and incorrectly said that the first 15 U.S. presidents owned slaves (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan did not). He ended by saying that the U.S. had come "a mighty long way" since then.[44]
In 2005 Jackson was enlisted as part of the United Kingdom's Operation Black Vote, a campaign Simon Woolley ran to encourage more of Britain's ethnic minorities to vote in political elections ahead of the 2005 General Election.[45]
In 2009 Jackson served as a speaker for the International Peace Foundation on the topic "Building a culture of peace and development in a globalized world".[46] He visited multiple locations in Malaysia, including the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in Thailand, including NIST International School in Bangkok.[47]
Awards and recognition
Ebony Magazine named Jackson to its "100 most influential black Americans" list in 1971.[20]
In 1979, Jackson received the Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged.[346]
In 1988, the NAACP awarded Jackson its President's Award,[347] and the next year, the organization awarded him the Spingarn Medal.[348]
In 1991, Jackson received the American Whig-Cliosophic Society's James Madison Award for Distinguished Public Service.[349]
In 1999 he received the Golden Doves for Peace journalistic prize awarded by the Italian Research Institute Archive Disarmo.[350]
In August 2000, Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor bestowed on civilians.[351]
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Jackson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[11]
In 2008, Jackson was presented with an Honorary Fellowship from Edge Hill University.
In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader".[352]
Jackson inherited the title of the High Prince of the Agni people of Côte d'Ivoire from Michael Jackson (no relation). In August 2009, he was crowned Prince Côte Nana by Amon N'Douffou V, King of Krindjabo, who rules more than a million Agni tribespeople.[353]
In 2015, Jackson was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Edinburgh, in recognition of decades of campaigning for civil rights.[354][355]
In 2021, Jackson was appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor, France's highest order of merit, presented by French president Emmanuel Macron, for his work in civil rights.[356]
In December 2021, Jackson was elected an Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge.
In 2022, Jackson received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Benedict College.[357]