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A Star Athlete’s Call to Activism (Image Credits: Upload.wikimedia.org)
Chicago – Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, the charismatic activist who emerged as a leading voice in the civil rights struggle after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, died Tuesday at his home here surrounded by family. He was 84.[1][2]
A Star Athlete’s Call to Activism
Born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson grew up amid the harsh realities of segregation. The son of a teenage mother and a neighboring boxer, he was adopted by his stepfather and excelled as a quarterback at Sterling High School. A football scholarship took him to the University of Illinois, but racial barriers prompted a transfer to North Carolina A&T, a historically Black college, where he thrived as quarterback, honor student, and student body president.[1]
College life immersed him in the burgeoning civil rights era. Just months after arriving in 1960, he joined the “Greenville Eight” sit-in at a whites-only library, leading to his arrest. By 1965, Jackson marched in Selma alongside King for voting rights.[2]
Witness to History, Architect of Change
Jackson’s path converged dramatically with King’s in Chicago, where he launched Operation Breadbasket under the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to push companies toward hiring Black workers. On April 4, 1968, he stood at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King fell to an assassin’s bullet. Positioning himself as King’s successor, Jackson…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-02-17 20:59:00
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