Profile: The longstanding campaigner
Jesse Jackson has served as a shadow senator for the US District of Columbia alongside Florence Pendleton
PHOTO: AFP
Jesse Jackson has served as a shadow senator for the US District of Columbia alongside Florence Pendleton from January 3, 1991 to January 3, 1997.
An African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Reverend Jesse Jackson had also been a presidential candidate for the Democrats in 1984 and 1988.
Among his numerous achievements as a civil rights activist was the founding of the National Rainbow Coalition. He was also the founder of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). The two non-profit organisations were merged in 1996 under the banner of Rainbow/PUSH.
Jackson has also spearheaded minority youth reading programmes and education through PUSH-Excel, an off-shoot of Operation PUSH.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2015.