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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to congratulate Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson,
4Sr. on the occasion of his 75th birthday on October 8, 2016;
5and
 
6    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. was born on October 8,
71941 in Greenville, South Carolina; he graduated from public
8schools in Greenville and then enrolled at the University of
9Illinois on a football scholarship; he later transferred to
10North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
11graduating in 1964; he began his theological studies at Chicago
12Theological Seminary but deferred his studies when he began
13working full-time in the civil rights movement with Dr. Martin
14Luther King, Jr.; he was ordained on June 30, 1968 and received
15his earned Master of Divinity degree from the Chicago
16Theological Seminary in 2000; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. began his activism as a
18student in the summer of 1960 when he sought to desegregate the
19local public library in Greenville and served as a leader in
20the sit-in movement; in 1965, he became a full-time organizer
21for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; he was soon
22appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to direct the
23Operation Breadbasket program; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In December 1971, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. founded
2Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in Chicago
3with the goals of economic empowerment and expanding
4educational, business, and employment opportunities for the
5disadvantaged and people of color; in 1984, he founded the
6National Rainbow Coalition, a social justice organization
7based in Washington, D.C. that is devoted to political
8empowerment, education, and changing public policy; in
9September 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged
10to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to continue the work of both
11organizations; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.'s presidential campaigns
13in 1984 and 1988 broke new ground in United States politics;
14his 1984 campaign registered over one million new voters, won
153.5 million votes, and helped the Democratic Party regain
16control of the Senate in 1986; his 1988 campaign registered
17over two million new voters, won seven million votes, and
18helped boost hundreds of state and local elected officials into
19office; he also won historic victories, coming in first or
20second in 46 of 54 primary contests; and
 
21    WHEREAS, On November 2, 1985, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
22joined with Oliver Tambo, Bishop Trevor Huddleston, Ken
23Livingston, Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz, Paul Boateng, future

 

 

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1member of parliament Diane Abbot, and others at the
2120,000-strong demonstration in London's Trafalgar Square to
3protest apartheid in South Africa and call upon the South
4African government to free Nelson Mandela; he later met with
5Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, appealing to her to end
6Britain's support for apartheid; and
 
7    WHEREAS, In 1991, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. was elected to
8serve as Senator of Washington, D.C., where he advocated for
9statehood for the nation's capital and advanced the "rainbow"
10agenda at the national and international levels; since then, he
11has continued to promote voter registration and lead
12get-out-the-vote campaigns, believing that everyone should be
13encouraged to be a responsible, informed, and active voter; he
14has also spearheaded major organizing tours through
15Appalachia, Mississippi, California, and Georgia; and
 
16    WHEREAS, In October 1997, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. was
17appointed by President Bill Clinton and then-Secretary of State
18Madeleine Albright, as "Special Envoy of the President and
19Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa";
20in this capacity, he traveled to several countries in Africa
21and met with national leaders such as President Nelson Mandela
22of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Daniel T. Arap
23Moi of Kenya, and President Frederick J.T. Chiluba of Zambia;
24and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, On February 16, 2003, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. was
2the keynote speaker at a rally held in London's Hyde Park with
3over one million people protesting the expected invasion of
4Iraq by the United States; in August 2007, Equanomics UK
5invited him to help launch the new organization in a historic
6nine-city United Kingdom tour; the tour coincided with the
7200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act in
8Britain, including the official Greater London Authority
9ceremony with Mayor Ken Livingston; at the conclusion of the
10tour, he joined international dignitaries at the unveiling of a
11statue of Nelson Mandela in London's Parliament Square; and
 
12    WHEREAS, In January 2008, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. delivered
13the international keynote address on the life and philosophy of
14Mahatma Gandhi at an event in New Delhi, India marking the 50th
15anniversary of Gandhi's martyrdom; the global event celebrated
16the strength of non-violent, peaceful protest that Gandhi
17demonstrated in his uncompromising quest for peace and justice;
18and
 
19    WHEREAS, Due to his status as a highly respected and
20trusted world leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has acted as an
21international diplomat in many sensitive situations; in 1984,
22he secured the release of captured Navy Lieutenant Robert
23Goodman from Syria and the release of 48 Cuban and

 

 

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1Cuban-American prisoners from Cuba; he was the first American
2to bring home citizens of the United Kingdom, France, and other
3countries who were held as "human shields" by Saddam Hussein in
4Kuwait and Iraq in 1990; in 1999, he negotiated the release of
5United States soldiers held hostage in Kosovo; in August 2000,
6he helped negotiate the release of four journalists working on
7a documentary for Britain's BBC 4 network who were held in
8Liberia; he has traveled extensively in the Middle East and
9Asia and was a special guest of President Fernando Cardoso of
10Brazil in honoring Zumbi, the leader of slave revolts that led
11to the end of slavery in Brazil; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has been a consistent and
13vigorous supporter of the labor movement in the United States
14and around the world and has walked more picket lines and
15spoken at more labor rallies than any other national leader; he
16has worked with unions to organize workers, protect workers'
17rights, and mediate labor disputes; in 1996, he traveled to
18Asia to investigate treatment of workers in the Japanese
19automobile industry and in athletic apparel factories in
20Indonesia; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. frequently lectures at
22major colleges and universities, including Howard University,
23Yale University, Princeton University, Morehouse College,
24Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University,

 

 

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1and Hampton University; he continues to be a leading advocate
2for a variety of public policy issues, including universal
3health care, equal administration of justice in all
4communities, sufficient funding for enforcement of civil
5rights laws, and for increased attention to business investment
6in under-served domestic communities, a theme that the Clinton
7administration incorporated in the "New Markets Initiative";
8he also supports a broad range of policies to improve
9education, eliminate poverty, and remind everyone that we are a
10"One-Big-Tent-America", with room for all and with no one left
11in the margins; he spearheads the campaign of "Restructure
12Loans, Don't Foreclose on Homes", which tackles the housing and
13economic crises gripping the world; he has also visited
14thousands of high schools, colleges, universities, and
15correctional facilities encouraging excellence, inspiring
16hope, and challenging young people to study diligently and stay
17drug-free; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has received more than 40
19honorary doctorate degrees and countless awards and honors for
20his work in human and civil rights and non-violent social
21change; in 1991, the United States Postal Service put his
22likeness on a pictorial postal cancellation, only the second
23living person to receive such an honor; he has been on the
24Gallup List of the Ten Most Respected Americans for many years;
25he has received the prestigious NAACP Spingarn Award in

 

 

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1addition to honors from hundreds of grassroots, civic, and
2community organizations from coast to coast; he was made an
3Honorary Fellow of Regents Park College at Oxford University in
4the United Kingdom in November 2007; he received an Honorary
5Fellowship from Edge Hill University in Liverpool, England; he
6was inducted into the prestigious Cambridge Union Society in
7March 2010; he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the
8University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa in April 2010; on
9August 9, 2000, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of
10Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill
11Clinton for his work; in 2009, he received the "Global
12Diversity and Inclusion Award" by British Prime Minister Gordon
13Brown; and
 
14    WHEREAS, From 1992 to 2000, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. hosted
15"Both Sides with Jesse Jackson" on CNN; he continues to write a
16weekly column of analysis syndicated by the Chicago Tribune/Los
17Angeles Times; he is the author of "Keep Hope Alive" (1989),
18and "Straight From the Heart" (1987); with his son, Jesse L.
19Jackson, Jr., he co-authored the books "Legal Lynching: Racism,
20Injustice, and the Death Penalty" (1996) and "It's About The
21Money" (1999); and
 
22    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. married his college
23sweetheart Jacqueline Lavinia Brown in 1963; they have five
24children, Santita Jackson, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Jonathan

 

 

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1Luther Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Esq., and Jacqueline
2Lavinia Jackson, Jr.; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. will celebrate his 75th
4birthday at an event in his honor on October 8, 2016 at the
5Rainbow PUSH Coalition's National Headquarters in Chicago; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Over the past 40 years, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
7has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for
8empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and
9economic and social justice; his status as the "Conscience of
10the Nation" and "the Great Unifier" and his ability to bring
11people together on common ground across lines of race, culture,
12class, gender, and belief is worthy of the greatest respect;
13therefore, be it
 
14    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
15NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
16congratulate Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. on the occasion of
17his 75th birthday and wish him great success and happiness in
18his future endeavors; and be it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
20presented to Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. as a symbol of our esteem
21and respect.