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Ana Maria Arruda
Carolina Dutra
Debora Barbosa
Gabriela Rotella
Isabela Yumi Sampei

We have a dream: The biography of Jesse Jackson

"I am Somebody!
I am Somebody!
I may be poor,
But I am Somebody.
I may be young,
But I am Somebody.
I may be on welfare,
But I am Somebody.
I may be small,
But I am Somebody.
I may have made mistakes,
But I am Somebody.
My clothes are different,
My face is different,
My hair is different,
But I am Somebody.
I am black,
Brown,or white.
I speak a different language
But I must be respected,
Protected,
Never rejected.
I am God’s child!"
-Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson is a civil leader and one of the most influential African-America who was the first viable candidate for president in the late 20th century. During his government, in 1965 he went to Selma, Alabama to march with Martin Luther King and became a worker in King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

“Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.”
-Maya Angelou

Childhood

 Jesse Jackson had a typical childhood of a black boy born in the 1940s. He was born in Greenville in southern California and had separated parents. In public places like buses and drinking fountains, for example, he was always subject to use separate spaces from white people. 

He attended Sterling High School in Greenville, and was always a good student. From an early age, John possessed a leadership spirit, having been elected class president and loving sports such as football, basketball and baseball.

Adulthood

During college, Jesse attended two different Universities. In 1960, Jesse went to the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. After four years (1964), he transferred to the predominantly Black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina where he received a B.A. in sociology. In 1966, already graduated, he did a postgraduate at the Chicago Theological Seminary. Years later, he started to work as a baptist minister and was when he joined Martin Luther King.

Jesse Jackson believed in equality and he fought for equal rights for African Americans, women and homosexuals. A big part of his life he lived in Chicago where he married Jacqueline Lavine Jackson and with her had four sons: Santita Jackson, Jesse Jackson Jr, Yusef Dubois Jackson and Jonathan Jackson.

Accomplishments

Jesse participated of the Selma Montgomery March in 1965 along with Martin Luther King Jr. Black people were peacefully protesting for constitutional rights when police man brutally repressed them by using tear gas and billy clubs. Important activists like Jimmie Lee Jackson and James Reeb were murdered by white police man. This event is known as Bloody Sunday in reason of the violence that was used against advocates.

In 1984 and 1988, Jesse ran for president as a democratic candidate. With this achievement, he became the third black candidate for president from a major party. Nevertheless, he was the first viable African-American candidate for president.

In 1971, Jesse Jackson founded The PUSH Association. It encourages a broader opportunity of employment for black people and also, tries to improve the economic conditions of African-Americans.

Nowadays, Jesse Jackson is 79 years old and deals with Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless, this did not stop him for fighting for civil rights. With the dead of George Floyd last year, the pastor gave several interviews manifesting his sadness. He gave a speech during the memorial service.