Jesse Jackson

On December 31, 1962, he married Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, with whom he has five children.

In 2001, it was revealed that he had an illicit affair with Karin L. Stanford, a writer and professor, with whom he had a daughter and was paying $4,000 a month to support his child.

Jesse Jackson was born to Helen Burns, who was only 16 at the time of his birth. His biological father was Noah Louis Robinson, a 33 year-old former professional boxer, who was married. When Helen married Charles Henry Jackson, he adopted her son and gave him his last name.

Jesse was sent to the Sterling High School in Greenville, a school for the African-Americans, and graduated in 1959. He went to the University of Illinois after receiving a scholarship but transferred to North Carolina A&T in 1960, after his second semester.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, he attended the Chicago Theological Seminary on a scholarship.

While at the North Carolina A&T, he was an active participant in several civil rights protests which he continued in Chicago Theological Seminary. He dropped out of the university to fully dedicate himself to the civil rights movement.

In 1966, he was appointed the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an African-American civil rights organization started by Martin Luther King Jr.

He was appointed as the organization’s national director in 1967 and under him the protestors boycotted consumer goods in an attempt to force the owners of several businesses to hire African-Americans.

However, his enthusiasm was not well-received by several members in the organization. Even Martin Luther King Jr. was a little annoyed by the young activist’s insolence.

Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister by the Chicago church in 1968.

In 1968, after King’s assassination, Jackson was in trouble for exaggerating the scene. He described to the reporters that King died in his arms and that he was the last person King spoke to before dying, whereas Jackson was not even there at the exact spot where the assassination happened.

His organization PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), which later merged with another establishment ‘National Rainbow Coalition’, works towards establishing social equality and advocates the sharing of economic as well as political power in America.

PUSH also launched a campaign against abortion and supported the United States pro-life movement which argues that human fetus is a (living) person who has right to live.

He was the second African-American Democrat candidate, after Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, to run for the Presidential office.