Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. Jackson was also the host of Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCivil Rights Leader
Date of Birth8 October 1941
CountryUnited States of America
Since 1963, much has changed in America and the world. And much remains the same. The struggle for fairness, equal protection, equal opportunity, self-determination, the struggle to defend the poor and the needy, a fairer distribution of wealth and resources, continues in the face of the hostility of the vested interests, power and domination of the few.
The poor and the working poor have been locked out of the nation's consciousness, even by the media and by many ministers. Katrina washed away the debris that was covering the locked out and left behind.
These poor black people were left stranded in the city when federal government had resources readily available and they didn't deliver the resources and I think people died because of this and these are tough questions that need to be answered.
When journalists and politicians speak of a dwindling middle class that's under economic assault and a poor community that's getting bigger, they're talking about Ferguson. Independent of the racial demographics and dynamics of Ferguson, Missouri, there's a 'Ferguson' near you.
To call her a seamstress is irrelevant, ... She was not arrested for sewing. She was a freedom fighter.
Why are there no African Americans in that circle? ... How can blacks be left out of the leadership and trapped into the suffering?
Why are there no African Americans in that circle?
We've cut too much sugar cane, we've picked too much cotton, we've died too young, ... Don't give up now. It's dark, I know. But morning is coming.
We're simply saying to Wall Street corporations ... we expect you to open up the market place, ... We (African-Americans) have good products, services, talent and capital. Let us in.
What's different here is that Ken Starr is able to play God with government funding.
We go as independent religious leaders, as private citizens, not with the support of our government. But I'm sure they hope we are successful in our appeal.
We want to do more than see them and take the messages from their relatives from who we have talked. We want to gain their freedom.
Though our histories are burdensome with pain and often bitter memories, we must have the strength to get ahead and not just get even,
You have a young African-American taking some food from a grocery store after their home was ruined by a flood and it's called looting. A white person is taking food from a grocery store and it's called finding bread and soda.