Jesse Jackson Delivers CMC's
Annual MLK Keynote Address
With Justice for All: Human Rights
and Civil Rights At Home and Abroad

The Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and one of America's foremost political figures, delivered CMC's 22nd annual address commemorating the birth date of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Wednesday evening, Jan. 27. CMC first hosted Rev. Jackson on Jan. 17, 1989. A dinner preceding Jackson's remarks was reserved for members of the CMC community and invited guests. Jackson's address, "With Justice for All: Human Rights and Civil Rights At Home and Abroad," was free and open to the public, with seating on a first come basis. Overflow seating, with a live feed to the event, was provided in McKenna Auditorium.
Over the past 30 years, Jackson has played a role in movements for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. He has been called the "conscience of the nation" and "the great unifier," challenging America to establish just and humane priorities, and is known for bringing people together on common ground across lines of race, class, gender, and belief.
Born Oct. 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, he attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship and later transferred to North Carolina A&T State University. He attended Chicago Theological Seminary until he joined the Civil Rights Movement full time in 1965.
Jackson began his activism as a student leader in the sit-in movement and continued as a young organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He went on to direct Operation Breadbasket and subsequently founded People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) in Chicago in 1971. PUSH's goals were economic empowerment and expanding educational and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and communities of color.
In 1984, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a national social justice organization devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. In September 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged into the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to continue both philosophies and maximize its resources.
Jackson advocated nationalized health care, the war on drugs, dialogue with the Soviet Union, and negotiations with the Middle East long before they became popular positions. By virtue of his advocacy, South African apartheid and the fight for democracy in Haiti came to the forefront of the national conscience. Jackson's two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984 campaign won 3.5 million votes and registered more than one million new voters, and helped the Democratic Party regain control of the Senate in 1986. His 1988 candidacy won seven million votes and registered two million new voters, helping sweep hundreds of elected officials into office.
Additionally, Jackson won a historic victory, coming in first or second in 46 out of 54 contests.
A respected world leader, he has acted many times as an international diplomat in sensitive situations. For example, in 1984 he secured the release of captured Navy Lt. Robert Goodman from Syria, as well as the release of 48 Cuban and Cuban-American prisoners in 1984. He was the first American to bring hostages out of Kuwait and Iraq in 1990. In an impressive victory that same year, he also was elected to the post of U.S. Senator from Washington, D.C., a position also known as "Statehood Senator." The office was created to advocate statehood for the District of Columbia.
A hallmark of Jackson's work has been his commitment to youth. He has visited thousands of high schools, colleges, universities, and correctional facilities encouraging excellence, inspiring hope, and challenging young people to academic excellence and staying drug-free. He has also been a major force in the American labor movement-working with unions to organize workers and mediate labor disputes. It is noted that Jackson has probably walked more picket lines and spoken at more labor rallies than any other national leader.
A renowned orator, he has received numerous honors for his work in human and civil rights and for nonviolent social change. In 1991, the U.S. Post Office put his likeness on a pictorial postal cancellation, only the second living person to receive such an honor. He has been on the Gallup List of Ten Most Respected Americans for the past 10 years, and was given the prestigious NAACP Spingarn Medal, in addition to honors from hundreds of grassroots and community organizations. He is the recipient of more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees, and frequently lectures at Howard, Yale, Princeton, Morehouse, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Hampton universities, among others.
Since 1992, Jackson has hosted Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN. He is also the author of Keep Hope Alive and Straight from the Heart. In 1996, Jackson co-authored the book Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty with his son, U.S. Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr.
In October 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. In this role, he traveled to Kenya and Zambia in November 1997 to meet with His Excellency Daniel T. Arap Moi of Kenya, and President Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia.