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The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., biography

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over …

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Isolate — don’t bomb — Syria

President Obama will address the nation on Syria tonight hoping to stem opposition that is rising both at home and abroad. Polls show the broad majority of Americans oppose getting further involved in Syria. Despite his best efforts, the president could not persuade even a …

Stand up to ‘dream busters’

We have heard the call for action. The 50th anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom outlined what needs to be done to revive the Dream. President Obama has put forward part of that agenda for action. And now we face the Dream Busters. …

50 years later: The president’s response

This Wednesday, Aug. 28, on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Dream” oration, President Barack Obama will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Much of the …

  • King’s unfinished symphony of freedom

    Next weekend, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, best known for Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Dream.” Fifty years later, the dream challenges us yet. It is alive because it is not static. The dream of equal …Read More

  • King’s march was for jobs and freedom

    BY JESSE JACKSON. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the famous March on Washington,Americans will recall Dr. King’s famous “dream.”But it’s worth recalling the full meaning of that dream. But for jobs and economic opportunity, the March on Washington remains unfinished 50 years later.

    • Enshrine voting right in the Constitution

    On this day, 48 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, announcing, “This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, as individuals, control over their own destinies.” With Martin Luther King Jr. and …

    North Carolina’s Tea Party nightmares

    North Carolina — once poster child for the New South— now displays the nightmares spawned by the Tea Party right no longer restrained by the Voting Rights Act after the Supreme Court’s conservative gang of five disemboweled it in the Shelby case. In North Carolina, …

    From conversation to action: After Trayvon

    President Barack Obama eloquently described the agony experienced among African-Americans from the slaying of Trayvon Martin. He called for a more thoughtful “conversation” on race, convened not by politicians, but among families, in churches and workplaces. He suggested modest steps to provide greater training on …

    Investigate the racial context behind Martin’s death

    If Trayvon Martin were not a young black male, he would be alive today. Despite the verdict, it’s clear that George Zimmerman would never have confronted a young white man wearing a hoodie. He would, at the very least, have listened to the cops and …

    An economic divide is growing in our cities

    What is the plan for our nation’s cities? Are they simply to simmer with a growing divide between the affluent financial district and the impoverished slums? Will another generation be lost while we wait for the inevitable explosions? The gulf between the realities of our …

    Obama should lead fight to revive Voting Rights Act

    President Barack Obama should lead a forceful drive to revive the Voting Rights Act, which was effectively disemboweled by the Supreme Court’s decision last week. All celebrate the 1965 Act as the most consequential civil rights legislation of the past century. Its passage was central …

    On race, Supreme Court is out of touch

    In its decision Monday on affirmative action, the Supreme Court punted. It reviewed the University of Texas affirmative action program — in which race is admittedly “a factor of a factor of a factor” in admission, one of many factors used with a university committed …

    Inner cities need disaster relief, too

    New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently spoke at a conference sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago on disaster recovery in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which caused an estimated $39 billion in damage in New Jersey. Christie talked through the plans for rebuilding …

    LBJ’s war on poverty still only partly won

    Fifty years ago this week, Medgar Evers, the NAACP regional secretary in Mississippi, was murdered by a member of the White Citizens’ Council. Evers’ death received national attention, serving only to strengthen the movement for civil rights. Two years later, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a …

    Obama must see Africa in new light

    When President Obama and the first lady travel to Africa at the end of this month, they will receive a rapturous greeting. The president’s deep roots in Kenya, the land of his father, resonate throughout the continent. His success in the United States evokes pride …

    Recovery? Not for the common people

    Without vision, the Bible teaches, the people perish. And in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Newark and cities across the country, the people are perishing. Each week in Chicago, we witness more pain. Teachers are laid off and schools are closed. Transit workers are terminated and bus …

    Child poverty is the real scandal

    Washington is descending into another silly season. Let’s end this diversion of dust and smoke as partisans hype mock “scandals” for political profit. The real scandals — like that of children in poverty — are simply being ignored. In this rich nation, nearly 8 million …

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