The Nassau Community College Spring 2010 Cultural Program Presents Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. With Justice for All: Human Rights, Civil Rights, Diversity March 22

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Immediate: March 2, 2010Media Contact: Alicia Steger - 516.572.9634E-Mail: alicia.steger@ncc.eduncc.edu/newsreleases;

With Justice for All: Human Rights, Civil Rights, Diversity

March 22

Garden City, NY – The Spring 2010 Cultural Program at Nassau Community College is proud to present With Justice for All:  Human Rights, Civil Rights, Diversity featuring legendary activist Reverend Jesse Jackson. While it’s open to the public, seating is limited for this free event, which will take place on Monday, March 22 at 3:30 p.m. in the College Center Building. For more information, please call 516.572.7153.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has long been one of America’s foremost civil rights and political figures. Over the past 30 years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, civil rights, gender equity and economic and social justice.

Born in 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson attended the University of Illinois and North Carolina A&T State University. Following his graduation, Jackson attended the Chicago Theological Seminary until he joined the civil rights movement full time in 1965. 

Rev. Jackson began his activism as a student leader in the sit-in movement, and continued it as a young organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He subsequently founded People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) in Chicago in 1971. PUSH’s goals were economic empowerment and expanding educational and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and communities of color. Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984, a national social justice organization devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. The two organizations merged in 1996 to maximize their resources. 

Jackson’s two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984 campaign won 3.5 million votes and registered over one million new voters. In 1988, his candidacy won seven million votes and registered two million new voters.

As part of his commitment to youth, Rev. Jackson has visited thousands of high schools, colleges and correctional facilities encouraging excellence and inspiring hope. He also works with unions to organize workers and mediate labor disputes. 

Jackson has received numerous honors for his work in human and civil rights and non-violent social change. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton in 2000. Listed on the Gallup List of Ten Most Respected Americans for the past ten years, Rev. Jackson also received the prestigious NAACP Spingarn Award. He has been awarded more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees and frequently lectures at Howard, Yale, Princeton and Harvard Universities, among other institutions. 

Since 1992, Jackson has hosted Both Sides With Jesse Jackson on CNN.  He is the author of two books: Keep Hope Alive and Straight From the Heart and co author of two others with his son, U.S. Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.

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