Jessie Jackson Essay

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JESSIE JACKSON Jessie Louis Jackson, Sr. was one of the best African-American civil rights activists that ever lived. He was born on October 8, 1941. He is a Baptist minister of a church. He also was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of two organizations that merged together to form Rainbow/PUSH. Jessie Jackson, Jr. is his oldest son. In a “Black Voices” poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted the most important black leader. Jessie grew without a father in his life, but only a single mother. Jackson attended Sterling High School, a segregated high school in Greenville at that time, where he became a student-athlete. After graduating in 1959, he rejected a contract from a professional baseball team so that he could attend the racially integrated University of Illinois on a football scholarship. After one year, Jackson transferred to North Carolina a&T located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Jackson transferred because of his belief of the school’s racial biases which included his being unable to play as a quarterback despite being a star quarterback at his high school. ESPN.com suggests that claims of racial discrimination on the football team may be exaggerated because Illinois’s starting quarterback that year was an African American, although it does not mention anything about besides the quarterback’s race which might have added to this claim. Jackson also stated himself being demoted by his speech professor as a backup in a public-speaking competition team without the support of his teammates who elected him a place on the team for his superior abilities. After being placed on academic probation Jackson left Illinois at end of his second semester. After Jackson graduated from A&T, Jackson attended the Chicago
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