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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are pleased to honor one of the most notable
4 figures of our time, the Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was born in Greenville,
6 South Carolina on October 8, 1941; the son of an Alabama
7 sharecropper, he adopted his stepfather's last name; and
 
8     WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was a good enough
9 athlete in high school to be offered a contract by the Chicago
10 White Sox, but he turned it down due to discrepancies in pay
11 between white and black players; he also turned down an
12 athletic scholarship at the University of Illinois when he was
13 told that, as a black, he could not expect to play as
14 quarterback; instead, he attended the mostly black
15 Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina in
16 Greensboro, North Carolina; in addition to being an outstanding
17 athlete, student, and campus leader, he took a lead in protests
18 that forced Greensboro to integrate its restaurants and
19 theaters; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. then trained for the
21 ministry at the Chicago Theological Seminary; having joined the
22 protest movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern

 

 

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1 Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he was named head of
2 the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, the SCLC's program
3 to persuade American businesses to hire blacks and to get
4 companies to sell products made by blacks, in 1965; he became
5 Operation Breadbasket's national head in 1967, proving highly
6 successful in this position for several years; he also helped
7 create the Chicago Freedom Movement (1966) to press for
8 integrated schools and open housing; Jackson was beside Dr.
9 Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated in 1968; after
10 Dr. King's assassination, Jackson was viewed by some as the
11 potential successor to King as the leader in the struggle for
12 civil rights; and
 
13     WHEREAS, After he was ordained as a Baptist minister in
14 1968, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. concentrated his fight for
15 rights in the City of Chicago; after leaving Operation
16 Breadbasket in 1971, he founded his own organization, PUSH
17 (People United to Save Humanity), which would continue the
18 fight to improve the lives of African-Americans in a variety of
19 fronts; and
 
20     WHEREAS, Becoming increasingly more active on the
21 political scene, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. led a group that
22 successfully challenged Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's slate
23 of delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1972;
24 backed by another of his organizations, the Rainbow Coalition,

 

 

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1 he ran in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic presidential primaries,
2 gaining enough votes to ensure an important presence at the
3 conventions; as a primary candidate, he constantly won favor
4 with surprising constituencies as he inserted himself into a
5 variety of events, including rushing off to Syria to gain the
6 freedom of an American pilot and joining picket lines at
7 numerous labor actions; his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., has also
8 emerged as a political figure, becoming a member of the House
9 of Representatives from the State of Illinois; and
 
10     WHEREAS, After a brief hiatus from political advocacy,
11 Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. reemerged on the political scene in
12 2004 following voting problems plaguing the presidential
13 election; in a bid for justice, he called for a congressional
14 debate on the matter, asking for a fair count of the country's
15 votes and nationwide voting standards; and
 
16     WHEREAS, Even today, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. continues
17 to be named whenever there is a need for a new African-American
18 leader, whether it be a mayor of Chicago or the first senator
19 of Washington, D.C. if it became a state; he is undoubtedly
20 well known as one of the more striking figures in American
21 public life in the late 20th century and has remained a
22 commanding presence in the 21st century; therefore, be it
 
23     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE

 

 

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1 NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
2 designate October 8, 2008 and every October 8 thereafter as
3 Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. Day in the State of Illinois in
4 honor of this visionary civil rights leader; and be it further
 
5     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
6 presented to Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. as a symbol of our
7 esteem and respect.