Page 5 - RJLJS - Legacy Program Black Version 2

Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

The Early Years

ev. Jackson’s life began in a modest house perched at the top
Rof a small hill in Greenville, South Carolina. He came crying
into the world on October 8,1941, just as Jim Crow was entering
its dying days in the South. Named Jesse Louis Burns, he was the
beloved son of a plucky teenage mother with more heart than
means. The circumstances of his birth might otherwise have
condemned him to a life of poverty and disillusionment. But this
child of God had been born with remarkable gifts.

Jackson’s Haynie Street home stood not 10 feet from
the residence of his birth father, Noah Robinson. It
would be another decade before he learned the truth.
His mother, a bright and determined soul, raised
him steeped in a rich faith, even when their material
possessions were few.

Young Jesse was still a toddler when Helen, a beautician,
married Charles Henry Jackson, the man whose
surname Jackson took after his stepfather adopted him.

Rev. Jackson revered his mother, crediting her sacrifices
for his success. In the book “I Am Somebody,” by David Masciotra, he equated her
efforts to help others with a call to Christian social work. Her example was his lifelong inspiration. “If I have ever
shown a desire to help those who most need it; if I’ve ever been successful in that mission, it is because of my
mother,” he said in the book.

Young Jackson’s maternal grandmother, Matilda Burns, “Tibby,” as she was affectionately known, helped raise him
and was also a great early influence in his life. Tibby was wise and instilled in her grandson a sense of “specialness”
that bolstered his confidence and his quest for knowledge. She would bring home periodicals from the homes she
worked in to show her grandson the vastness of the world.

It was a world where Black folks “had second-class positions as a matter of law, a kind of state terrorism,” as Rev.
Jackson put it in a 2006 interview with N’Digo talk show in Chicago. “I grew up resenting those conditions, and it
made me want to be an odds-buster and improve beyond my circumstances.”

His stepfather, Charles, showed him the dignity of hard work and the quiet self-respect of a Black man determined
to provide for his family despite the constant indignities of the segregated South. As a young boy, he began
emulating his mother and stepfather’s strong work ethic, even before he was old enough to hold down a real job.
Jackson walked miles to his school, across the railroad tracks that divided blacks and whites. He walked past the
town jails, where other young Black men called out to him for help, hoping to reach their loved ones. He sold
peanuts at the baseball field to earn small change.

Some evenings, after learning of his birth father’s identity, he would walk to the well-to-do home of Noah
Robinson. Peering over the fence, he saw his half-siblings, healthy, well-fed, and well-kept. He had been teased
as a young boy because of the circumstances of his parentage. Yet, he found his footing in sports. As a gifted
quarterback, he learned to lead and take action.