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and a delegation of U.S. religious leaders, Jackson
landed in Gambia for face-to-face negotiations with the
Gambian leader. After a five-hour meeting, Rev. Jackson’s
skillful negotiation skills resulted in the president issuing
a moratorium on the execution of the remaining
37 prisoners, nine of whom were executed before
Jackson’s arrival, two of whom (Navy veteran Tamsir
Jasseh and former University of Tennessee professor
Amadou Janneh) were dual U.S. citizens- who joyfully
returned on the plane back home to New York with the
International Travels, Humanitarian Work, Jackson delegation.

and Rescue Missions “Free at last,” they exclaimed as they arrived at JFK

airport in New York to the waiting arms of their families.
or his work in human and civil rights and nonviolent social change, Rev. Jackson received more than 40 This was just one act of diplomatic humanity undertaken
Fhonorary doctorate degrees and frequently lectured at major colleges and universities, including Howard, by Rev. Jackson in his ministry of justice at home
Yale, Princeton, Morehouse, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Hampton. He was named an Honorary Fellow of and abroad.
Regents Park College at Oxford University in the UK in November 2007 and received an Honorary Fellowship
from Edge Hill University in Liverpool, England. In March 2010, Reverend Jackson was inducted into England’s To Rev. Jackson, civil rights were a moral imperative
prestigious Cambridge Union Society. In April 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of to be applied globally. From Haynie Street in South
KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Carolina to the corners of the globe, Rev. Jackson set
In October 1997, Rev. Jackson was appointed by President Bill foot on nearly every continent. His travels took him to
Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as “Special a Cambodian refugee camp deep in the Thai rainforest,
Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of to the streets of Soweto, to the frontlines of the southern
Democracy in Africa”. In this official position, he traveled to several African liberation struggles of the 1980s. From Arafat’s
countries on the African continent and met with such national dwelling in Palestine to the prime minister’s office
leaders as President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South in Israel. Rev. Jackson spoke with and stood beside
Africa, His Excellency Daniel T. Arap Moi of Kenya, and President kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, by
Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia. being fearless in integrating his domestic civil rights
convictions with a global vision, just like Marcus Garvey
In 2000, President Clinton awarded Rev. Jesse Jackson the and W.E.B. DuBois.
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor,
praising him for his “keen intellect and loving heart.” The President In 1979, Rev. Jackson stopped in Britain to appeal to
spoke effusively of Rev. Jackson’s powerful voice in the struggle for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to drop her support of
civil rights, economic opportunity, and social justice. apartheid. Afterwards, the reverend traveled to Soweto to
We need to include the missions in the original document that was walk among the church pews at Regina Mundi, putting a
left out. The family feel this is important to include these and cut global lens on the blight of apartheid. When he stepped
the President Clinton’s quote. [we need to make room] out to speak to the media, he said, “I believe in human
“It’s hard to imagine how we could have come as far as we have without the creative power, the keen intellect, the rights for all human beings – measured by one yardstick.”
loving heart, and the relentless passion of Jesse Louis Jackson,” the President said. It was indeed a proud moment
for the son of Greenville, but for Rev. Jackson, awards were never the point. He simply showed up and went to In 1984, Reverend Jackson secured the release of
work wherever he was needed. And needed he was. captured Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman from Syria
and the release of 48 Cuban and Cuban American
Rev. Jackson was often called on to serve as an international diplomat in some of the most highly sensitive global prisoners in Cuba. He was also the first American to
affairs. His successes reflected the respect and trust he commanded from world leaders, revolutionaries and bring home citizens from the UK, France, and other
international power brokers alike. It would be impossible to overstate Rev. Jackson’s decades-long accomplishments countries held as “human shields” by Saddam Hussein in
as one of America’s most influential and effective envoys. Kuwait and Iraq in 1990.

One of his most remarkable international humanitarian accomplishments, occurred in the late summer of 2012 In 1999, Reverend Jackson negotiated the release of U.S.
when Rev. Jackson got news that the Gambian president had decided to execute 47 Gambians, most of them soldiers held hostage in Kosovo. In August 2000, he
political prisoners on death row. Armed with his trusted staff— one of whom was born and raised in Gambia— helped negotiate the release of four journalists working