- Profession: minister and politician
- Lived: October 8, 1941 (Modern Era)
- Nationality: American
- Known for: Former shadow Senator from the District of Columbia, founder of Rainbow/PUSH and host of "Both Sides with Jesse Jackson"
- Fun Fact: Jackson was a candidate for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination.
- Fun Fact: He was part of the Greenville Eight who staged a sit-in at the Greenville Public Library in 1960.
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. was born in October 1941 in Greensville, South Carolina. As a young child, Jackson was taunted for being born out of wedlock and for being the product of an affair. Jackson later said that the mocking helped motivate him to succeed and prove the bullies wrong. He was part of the Greenville Eight in 1960 and later began working for Martin Luther King, Jr. and served as part of the Couther Christian Leadership Conference. In 1971, Jackson began Operation PUSH, People United to Save Humanity, in December 1971. Operation PUSH merged with Jackson's other organization, the Rainbow Coalition, in 1996 after Jackson resigned from both posts in order to seek the 1984 presidential nomination.
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