Happy Birthday Rev Jackson

On November 8, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights icon and tireless campaigner for racial and social justice turned 70.

This past week Jackson’s achievements were celebrated with a dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles that also included an awards ceremony by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

At another event last week at Georgetown University, Jackson was honoured with a forum organized by supporters and friends featuring speakers who recognized Jackson’s contributions to everything from civil rights for African Americans to gender equality.

Born in segregation-era South Carolina, Jackson attended college before joining the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King, Jr. He was ordained as a minister in 1968. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) for economic empowerment, which merged in 1996 with the social justice organization National Rainbow Coalition, another group he had founded in 1984.

Over four decades, Jackson has been involved in numerous causes, especially those that deal with helping the disadvantaged and minorities in the United States. He is recognized as an influential and enduring figure in the American political and social landscape.

In recent years, Operation Black Vote has worked a great deal with Jesse Jackson. Last year he helped launch OBV’s late voter registration campaign. During this summer’s riots, he released a joint statement with OBV that the violence should be condemned but that communities must work to heal themselves. Jackson also frequently speaks out in the United Kingdom about racial issues such as racial profiling.

OBV's Director Simon Woolley stated,

There is one thing to have read about the great civil rights icon and former Presidential candidate Rev Jesse Jackson, there is quite another to have worked with him and to class him as a friend. I feel fantastically lucky.

We at OBV celebrate Reverend Jesse Jackson’s life’s work and would like to extend our regards as he celebrates his 70 th birthday.

Danny Mucinskas

Picture: Rev Jackson