1941-
Baptist Minister and Civil Rights Leader

Links with King.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson came a long way very quickly from his beginnings as an illegitimate child in Greenville, South Carolina. His charm, drive, intelligence, and athletic ability led him into a football scholarship at North Carolina A 8c T University in Greensboro, where he became a leader in desegregation activities. His desire to become a Baptist minister led him to Chicago. Jackson first attracted national attention when he led a delegation from the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was a student, to join demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Impressed by the young man's ability, King gave Jackson a job organizing black preachers in Chicago for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). When King moved his campaign north to Chicago in 1966, Jackson moved even closer to the center of...