Explore the remarkable life of Jesse Jackson, the civil rights titan who passed away on February 17, 2026, at age 84. This episode traces Jackson's journey from his birth as Jesse Louis Burns in segregated Greenville, South Carolina, through his transformation into one of America's most influential and controversial figures. Learn how a young athlete walked away from a University of Illinois football scholarship when Black players were barred from playing quarterback, leading him to North Carolina A&T where he would launch his activist career by leading desegregation protests in Greensboro. Discover his fateful meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma after Bloody Sunday, his rise through the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and his presence at the Lorraine Motel the night King was assassinated. Follow Jackson's founding of Operation PUSH in 1971, his groundbreaking presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 that registered millions of new voters and paved the way for future Black candidates, and his international diplomacy that secured the release of American hostages from Syria, Iraq, and Yugoslavia. This comprehensive biography examines both his achievements, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Clinton in 2000, and the controversies that followed him throughout his career. From his early advocacy against apartheid and for Palestinian statehood to his later work with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Wall Street Project, this episode provides an honest look at a complex man whose fingerprints remain on the fabric of American history.
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Feb 17 202619 mins