Rev. Jesse Jackson will speak at Boise State University

October 10, 2006

Civil rights leader and political activist Rev. Jesse Jackson will speak as part of Boise State University’s Martin Luther King Jr./Human Rights Celebration. The event is free, but tickets will be required. Tickets will be available at the Student Union Information Desk in early December.

Jackson’s lecture is titled “With Justice for All: Human Rights and Civil Rights a Reality.” Jackson has been a prominent figure for three decades and is the president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. He was born in 1941 in Greenville, S.C., and later attended the University of Illinois and North Carolina A&T; State University. He attended the Chicago Theological Seminary, leaving to join the civil rights movement full-time in 1965.

Jackson was a student leader in the sit-in movement and was an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an assistant to Martin Luther King, Jr. He went on to direct Operation Breadbasket and subsequently founded People United to Save Humanity, or PUSH, in 1971, which focuses on economic empowerment and educational and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and communities of color. In 1984, he founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a national social justice organization devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. The Rainbow Coalition and PUSH merged in 1996.

Jackson ran for the presidency in 1984 and 1988 and has acted as an international diplomat in several sensitive situations. He has visited thousands of students in high schools, higher educational institutions and correctional facilities and also has worked in the labor movement, mediating disputes and organizing workers.

Jackson has received numerous honors for his work. In 1991 he became the second living person to have his likeness on a United States Post Office pictorial postal cancellation. He has been on the Gallup List of the 10 Most Respected Americans for 10 years. He also has received the NAACP Spingarn Award, as well as numerous honors from hundreds of grassroots and community organizations from coast to coast. He has received more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees, and in 1997 he was appointed special envoy of the president and secretary of state for the promotion of democracy in Africa.

For more information about the Martin Luther King Jr./Human Rights Celebration or about Jackson’s appearance, call (208) 426-1223.

For More Information Contact:
Taco Bell Arena Administrative Office at (208) 426-1900

Event Information:
Jesse Jackson
January 17, 2007 – 7:30 PM
Event Info |

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