Jackson, Jesse Louis (orig. Jesse Louis Burns)

US activist, black civil rights leader, Baptist clergyman, and Democratic politician

national director of Operation Breadbasket 1967-1971

ordained Baptist minister 1968

founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) 1971

president of Operation PUSH 1971-1986

candidate for Democratic presidential nomination 1984, 1988

founded National Rainbow Coalition 1986

Spingarn Medal 1989

wrote "Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice and the Death Penalty" 1996

negotiated release of three US soldiers captured by Serb forces 1999

• "The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt."
• "Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change."
• "From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation."(Funeral oration for Martin Luther King, Sr.)"
• "[Today's students] can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. ... If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude."
• "Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together."