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Adopting a New Name
Jesse Louis Burns adopted his stepfather's last name (charles Jackson), at about the age fifteen. -
Attending College
After being a good high school student, and even a class president, Jesse Jackson attended the "University of Illinois" in 1959-1960 on a football scholarship. Being a high-school class president might have helped his becoming such an activist, and leader. -
Transferring Schools
Not long after attending UI, Jackson transferred to the predominantly black "Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina" in Greensboro, NC, and received a B.A. in sociology in 1964-1965. I connect to this event because i trannsferr schools alot. -
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Marching in Selma and Working for the SCLC
Still a civil rights activist, and an undergraduate, Jackson went to Selma, Alabama, to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,and became a worker in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). I believe that this might have helped him learn how organizations work, and give him a better understanding. -
Becoming a Civil Rights Activist
As an undergraduate, Jackson became a civil rights activist in 1965. I believe this helped shaped his becoming a minister, and him founding his own organization. -
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Founding the Economic Arm of the SLCL
Jackson helped found the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the SCLC, in 1966 and served as the organization’s national director from 1967 to 1971 -
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Moving to Chicago
Jackson moved to Chicago in 1966, did graduate work at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968 I connect to this because i move a lot. -
King is Assasinated
Jackson was in Memphis, Tennessee, with King when the civil rights leader was assassinated on April 4, 1968. I believe this might have helped motivate him to start his own organization. -
resigning
In 1971 Jackson formally resigned from the SCLC, after being accused of using the organization for personal gain -
Operation PUSH
1971 and founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), a Chicago-based organization in which he advocated black self-help and achieved a broad audience for his liberal views. -
Chicago's First Mayor
After jackson became an advocate for African-Americans, and a national spokesperson, his voter-registration drive was a key factor in the election of Chicago’s first African American mayor, Harold Washington, in April 1983. -
National Rainbow Coalition
In 1984 he established the National Rainbow Coalition, which sought equal rights for African Americans, women, and homosexuals. -
Merging Organization
In 1996 the two organizations that Jackson founded merged together to create the
