Jesse Jackson
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The Reverend Jesse Jackson |
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United States Shadow Senator from the District of Columbia |
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In office January 3, 1991 – January 3, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Succeeded by | Paul Strauss |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jesse Louis Burns October 8, 1941 Greenville, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Jacqueline Brown (1962–present) |
| Children |
Santita Jesse, Jr. Jonathan Yusef DuBois Jacqueline Lavinia Ashley Laverne (with Karin Stanford) |
| Alma mater |
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Chicago Theological Seminary |
| Religion | Baptist |
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born Jesse Louis Burns; October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. Jackson was also the host of Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000.
Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, to Helen Burns (1924–2015), a 16-year-old high school student, and her 33-year-old married neighbor, Noah Louis Robinson. Robinson was a former professional boxer who was an employee of a textile brokerage and a well-known figure in the black community. One year after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, a post office maintenance worker who later adopted the boy. Jesse was given his stepfather's name in the adoption, but as he grew up, he also maintained a close relationship with Robinson. He considered both men to be his father.
As a young child, Jackson was taunted by the other children regarding his out-of-wedlock birth, and has said these experiences helped motivate him to succeed. Living under Jim Crow segregation laws, Jackson was taught to go to the back of the bus and use separate water fountains – practices he accepted until the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. He attended the racially segregated Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was elected student class president, finished tenth in his class, and earned letters in baseball, football and basketball.
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