Electoral History of Jesse Jackson, Jr. - Early Life, Education, and Early Political Career

Early Life, Education, and Early Political Career

Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina and raised in the Jackson Park Highlands District of the South Shore community area on the South Side of Chicago, one of five children of Jesse and Jacqueline (Brown) Jackson. He attended nursery school at the University of Chicago and attended John J. Pershing Elementary School. At age five Jackson mimicked his father in a speech atop a milk crate at the Operation PUSH headquarters. His father sought media attention to shed light on important issues according to some accounts and as a result of his father's travels, his time with his father often occurred in the time between meetings.

He and his brother Jonathan were sent to Le Mans Military Academy in Rolling Prairie, Indiana after Jackson was diagnosed as hyperactive. He was often paddled for disciplinary reasons during his time as a cadet. Jackson repeated ninth grade and was suspended from school twice. He was an all-state running back on his football team in high school and was featured in a the February 1984 issue of Sports Illustrated as part of their Faces in the Crowd section, which noted him for his 15 touchdowns, 889 rushing yards, and 7.2 yards per carry in six games. Jackson enrolled in North Carolina A&T University, his father's alma mater, earning his Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude in 1987. He decided to follow his father's advice to receive a seminary education at the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he earned his master's degree a year early but opted not to become ordained. Jackson proceeded to law school at the University of Illinois and convinced his future wife to transfer there from the Georgetown University Law Center. He then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1993. Jackson never sat for the bar exam despite finishing his coursework a semester early.

As a teenager, Jackson and his brother Jonathan assisted in their father's civil rights activities. During the 1984 Democratic primaries, the three Jackson brothers sometimes appeared at events together in support of their father's presidential campaign. While in college, Jackson held a voter registration drive that registered 3,500 voters on a campus with 4,500 students. His first job after graduation was as an executive director for the Rainbow Coalition.

Jackson was again involved in his father's campaigning during the 1988 Democratic primaries. In 1988, in the dealings between his father and Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, Jackson's father obtained for him a position as an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) by a nomination from Democratic Party chairman Paul Kirk. Jackson, Jr. was the last of the five children and introduced his father with the words "a man who fights against the odds, who lives against the odds, our dad, Jesse Jackson." At the time, in Time magazine, Margaret Carlson depicted the younger Jackson as a well-spoken and compelling personality who would likely carry any of his father's political aspirations that his father was unable to achieve himself. His experience with the DNC gave him the opportunity to work on numerous congressional election races. After the convention he also became a vice president of Operation PUSH.

Jackson was arrested on his twenty-first birthday in Washington, D.C. following his participation in demonstrations against apartheid at the South African Embassy. He had been arrested with his father and brother the year before in a similar activity. His protest against apartheid extended to weekly demonstrations in front of the South African Consulate in Chicago. Jackson shared the stage with Nelson Mandela when Mandela made his historic speech following his release from a 27-year imprisonment in Cape Town in February 1990. Before entering the House, he became secretary of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus, the national field director of the National Rainbow Coalition and a member of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Jackson served as the national field director of the Rainbow Coalition from 1993 to 1995. Under Jackson's leadership, the Rainbow Coalition attempted to stimulate equitable hiring in the National Basketball Association because while 78% of the league's players were African American, 92% of the front-office executive positions, 88% of the administrative jobs, and 85% of the support positions were held by whites. While serving as the field director for the National Rainbow Coalition, he helped register millions of new voters through a newly instituted national non-partisan program. He also created a voter education program to teach citizens the importance of participating in the political process. He was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and also a founding board member of the Apollo Alliance.