J esse Louis Jackson, born October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, is a civil rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. He founded People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH), the National Rainbow Coalition, and the Wall Street Project. He ran for President of the United States twice, served as a senator for the District of Columbia, and traveled the world to promote human rights and democracy.

Jackson began his civil rights activism in the 1960s as a protégé of Martin Luther King, Jr., marching for Black voting rights with King in 1965 in Selma, Alabama. He became a worker in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and served as the organization’s national director from 1967 to 1971. Jackson was in Memphis, Tennessee when Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Jackson resigned from the SCLC after being accused of using the organization for personal gain. He subsequently founded Operation PUSH, a Chicago-based organization to advocate for Black self-help. In 1984 he established the National Rainbow Coalition to champion equal rights for Blacks, women, and homosexuals.

Jackson traveled the world in the 1970s to spotlight international problems and disputes. His travels included South Africa to highlight apartheid, the Middle East to campaign for a Palestinian state, and Syria, Iraq, and Yugoslavia to negotiate the release of U.S. soldiers and civilians.

In the 1980s, Jackson became a leader and advocate for Black rights. He popularized the term African American, enhancing the term’s more widespread usage and acceptance. Before that time, African Americans were referred to as Blacks (the term Malcolm X preferred over Negro), Black Africans, Afro-Americans (used in the 1960s to 1990s) and African Americans. Jackson ran as a Democrat for President twice in the 1980s—in 1984 and 1988, neither time winning the party’s nomination.

Jesse Jackson won his first elective office in 1991 as a “statehood senator” for the District of Columbia—an unpaid position to lobby Congress for the District’s statehood. In 1997, President Bill Clinton named Jackson a special envoy to Africa to promote human rights and democracy. That same year, Jackson sought to increase minority opportunities in corporate America with the founding of the Wall Street Project.

In 2020, President Clinton awarded Jesse Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Jackson is the author of numerous books including Legal Lynching, Straight From The Heart, Standing Up, and Keeping Hope Alive.