Jesse Jackson

American Baptist minister, civil rights leader, writer and businessman. Jackson was a spellbinding political preacher who electrified the 1984 Democratic convention with his famous "tent revival sermon." As candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, he finished second in the Democratic primaries over Al Gore, Richard Gephardt and Bruce Babbitt in 1988.

Jackson was the nation's preeminent black activist and his stature as a free-lance ambassador in some Third World countries was extremely impressive on the international stage. He had the ability to mediate high-profile releases of prisoners where other diplomats had failed. Jackson wrote a weekly editorial column that appeared in 80 newspapers around the U.S. and addressed a daily radio program. A preacher of hymns and chants that stress black pride in America, he won a 1988 Grammy award for best spoken-word recording.

Jackson was born out-of-wedlock from a poor mother. As a child, people called him "bastard." When his mother married postal employee, Henry Jackson, Jesse took his stepfather's name as his own. An outstanding athlete, Jackson played many sports in school.

He went on to attend the University of Illinois in 1959 but left in 1960. He transferred to the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina and was the star quarterback for the football team. He was president of his student body and offered a professional football position with the New York Giants. In 1964, he earned his B.A. in sociology and economics. In 1965, he won a scholarship to the Chicago Theological Seminary.

He became a civil rights activist and protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and worked with him for two years until King's death on 4 April 1968. Jackson became an ordained Baptist minister in 1968. He gradually moved away from King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.