Jesse Jackson In Dire Straits!

The life long civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is preparing for the end.

The retired civil rights leader is in his final days. A man who wanted to change the status quo of politics. A man who fought against Israel and was vilified in his 1984 and 1988 presidential bids.

Reverend-emiritis Jesse Jackson is hospitalized in Chicago and is under medical observation.

The 84-year-old is “under observation for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP),” the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said in a statement on the organization’s website.

Jackson was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease before doctors confirmed last year that he had PSP, a rare brain disorder that affects movement, balance, and cognition.

He is a flawed man but a man who fought for a purpose.

In 1968, he was in Memphis alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when a white nationalist assassinated him as he left the Lorraine Motel. He is a young protégé to the civil rights leader. 

King was vilified by the far right as a racial meddler and vowed to silence his tongue.

Jackson founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition were merged to serve one purpose, community action. 

The organizations pursue social justice, civil rights, and political activism.

He was born from a teenage pregnancy and rape by an older man who was married.

Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 8, 1941, to Helen Burns (1924–2015), a 16-year-old high school student, and her 33-year-old married neighbor, Noah Louis Robinson (1908–1997). His ancestry includes Cherokee, enslaved African-Americans, Irish plantation owners, and a Confederate sheriff.

Robinson was a former professional boxer who was an employee of a textile brokerage and a well-known figure in the black community. 

One year after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, a post office maintenance worker who later adopted the boy.

Jesse was given his stepfather's name in the adoption, but as he grew up he also maintained a close relationship with Robinson. He considers both men to be his fathers.

As a child, Jackson was taunted by other children about his out-of-wedlock birth and has said these experiences helped motivate him to succeed. 

Living under Jim Crow segregation laws, Jackson was taught to go to the back of the bus and use separate water fountains—practices he accepted until the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955.

Jackson attended the racially segregated Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was elected student class president, finished tenth in his class, and earned letters in baseball, football, and basketball.

Jackson ran for president in 1984 and 1988. He ran on Palestinian freedom, ending the war on drugs, Black reparations, indigenous reparations and Hispanic unity.

During the Reagan years, the religious right sought dominance with culture wars and censorship.

They saw Jackson as a threat.

Israel definitely saw him as a threat because he fought against apartheid in South Africa and Israel. They used every devious trick to sink his campaigns.

Israel had a healthy relationship with then president Ronald Reagan. They worked with Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater and Roger Stone to create a campaign of racial politics. They used the Jackson campaign to tank Walter Mondale in the Reagan landslide and Michael Dukakis in the George H.W. Bush landslide. The welfare queen and the other guy taking your job scared up white voters. It motivated the South to become a stronghold for Republicans. As of today, Republican governors dominate all but two Southern states.

The far right often scapegoats Black grievances to Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Any issue involving Black Americans shot by police, Blacks being discriminated, Blacks being victims of sexual abuse and Blacks being involved in criminal acts, the far right zeros in on Jackson as their boogeyman to scare up white voters.

Jackson was a shadow delegate. When Washington, DC wanted statehood, the federal district elected Jackson as a U.S. Senator. He was not sworn in but allowed to be on the Senate floor in viewing.

Jackson is married to Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson. They have five children.

Jackson is the father of two U.S. lawmakers. Santita Jackson, is a progressive agitator and media personality. He also has Yousef and Jacqueline.

His sons, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) have served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jesse served 1995 to 2012. He ended up being indicted on corruption along with his wife Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson. They were convicted and served time in the iron college. Jonathan Jackson is a current member of the U.S. House. Jesse, Jr. host a radio show and podcast.

Jackson had had an affair with a staffer, Karin Stanford, that resulted in the birth of a daughter Ashley in May 1999. According to CNN, in August 1999, the Rainbow Push Coalition had paid Stanford $15,000 (equivalent to $28,310 in 2024) in moving expenses and $21,000 (equivalent to $39,640 in 2024) in payment for contracting work. A promised advance of an additional $40,000 against future contracting work was rescinded once the affair became public. This incident prompted Jackson to withdraw from activism for a short time. 

Jackson despite his flaws was a force to be reckoned with. He worked tirelessly to help the vulnerable by pushing for a piece of the American Dream.