Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Jesse Jackson, Sr. is an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. As a civil rights advocate, Reverend Jackson became a full-time organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and was appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to direct Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the SCLC. Jackson founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a ‘multi-racial, multi-issue, progressive, and international membership organization fighting for social change.’ He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 1984 and 1988, and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 - 1997. In 1997, Jackson was appointed by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as "Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa,” and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
