Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson is one of America's greatest political figures. Over the past three decades, he has played a major role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. Jackson has been called the "conscience of the nation" and a "great unifier." He is the best-known living American leader in the United States. Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. A woman who did other people's laundry gave birth to him. The father was his married neighbor. Needless to say, Reverend Jackson was not dealt the best hand. But he overcame the obstacles of a lower-middle-class family; although his family was criticized, Jackson is now a national figure. In 1957, his stepfather, a postal worker, adopted him as his own son. Rev. Jackson graduated tenth in his high school class and received a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. He later left UI and enrolled at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensburo. There he became class president and the civil rights activist began to show himself to the world. After graduating in 1964, he attended Chicago Theological Seminary until joining the civil rights movement full time in 1965. Before graduating, he joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC), led by Martin Luther King Jr. King appointed him to t...