Page 26 - RJLMS - Legacy Program Purple

From Greenville June 1969: Jackson is ordained by Rev. Clay Evans and Bishop C.L. Franklin. 1969

to the World December 25, 1971: Jackson launches Operation PUSH in Chicago, formalizing 1971

his nationwide economic-justice and self-help movement.

July 1, 1972: Operation PUSH opens new
1941 October 8,1941: Jesse Louis Burns is born in Greenville, South Carolina; later Chicago headquarters after a firebomb; Jackson 1972
adopted by Charles Henry Jackson and takes the Jackson surname.
declares the group moved in “literally under fire.”

1960 July 1960: Jackson and seven classmates — the Greenville Eight — are arrested PUSH January 1975: Leads PUSH marches in 20 cities
for a sit-in at the public library, launching his civil-rights activism.
BUILDING pressing for jobs, justice, and a national 1975
Dr. King holiday.

1963 Jackson marries Lavinia Jacqueline Brown, Travels to South Africa and the Middle East;
his college sweetheart and lifelong partner.
condemns apartheid publicly and begins shaping 1979
a long record of global diplomacy.
1964 Graduates from North Carolina A&T (B.S.,
sociology); starred as quarterback and served
as student-body president. 1981-1982: PUSH pressures major corporations to adopt covenants for Black
hiring, procurement, board representation and community investment. 1981

As a seminary student, Jackson helps organize
1965 a caravan to Selma after “Bloody Sunday,”
joining the struggle for voting rights. November 1983: Announces his first presidential campaign; his organizing
reshapes Democratic politics and vastly expands voter registration. 1983

1966 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. appoints Jackson to lead Chicago’s Operation
Breadbasket, anchoring his economic-justice work.
January 1984: Secures the release of U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Robert Goodman from 1984
Syria after direct negotiations.
1968 April 4, 1968: Jackson stands with Dr. King at the Lorraine Motel the day King
is assassinated; the loss steels Jackson’s mission.

1984 - 1988: Two historic presidential campaigns
broaden political participation; party-rule 1984
1968 Summer, 1968: Named “mayor” of Resurrection PHOTO reforms and his “Rainbow” coalition leave lasting
City during the Poor People’s Campaign; he
popularizes the affirmation, “I Am Somebody.” structural change.

July 1988: Delivers a defining Democratic National
“Both tears and sweat are salty, but they Convention speech, urging Americans to see the 1988
render a different result. Tears will get you nation as a “quilt” of many patches.
sympathy; sweat will get you change.”

– Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. December 1988: Helps popularize the term “African American,” urging a historic 1988
and cultural identity.