Jesse Louis Jackson

Jackson, Jesse Louis (1941– ), U.S. clergyman and political leader. An associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Jackson later founded Operation Breadbasket (1966) and People United to Save Humanity (1971). He was the first African American to wage major, though unsuccessful, campaigns for the presidential nomination, running in Democratic primaries in 1984 and 1988. Since the 1988 elections, Jackson has continued his activities as an eloquent and effective speaker on vital national and foreign issues.