Brother Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. began service in the United States
House of Representatives on December 12, 1995, as he was sworn in as a member
of the 104th Congress, the 91st African American ever elected to Congress.
Brother Jackson currently sits on the House Appropriations
Committee, serving as the 5th ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education as well as the 2nd ranking Democrat on
the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs.
His leadership created the National Center on Minority Health and Health
Disparities at the National Institutes of Health in 2001, hailed by many
minority health experts as the most important civil rights legislation since
the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Brother Jackson also secured funding for the
Institute of Medicine's 2002 report on health disparities, "Unequal
Treatment.'
Prior to his congressional service, Brother Jackson served as the
National Field Director of the National Rainbow Coalition.
In this role, he
instituted a national non-partisan program that successfully registered
millions of new voters. He also created a voter education program to teach
citizens the importance of participating in the political process, including
how to use technology to win elections and more effectively participate in
politics.
Born in the midst of the voting rights struggle on March 11, 1965, Brother
Jackson spent his twenty-first birthday in a jail cell in Washington, D.C.
for taking part in a protest against apartheid at the South African Embassy. He
also demonstrated weekly in front of the South African Consulate in Chicago. Brother Jackson
was on stage with Nelson Mandela during his historic speech following a 27-year
imprisonment in Cape Town.
In 1987, Brother Jackson graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina A & T
State University
in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he earned a Bachelor
of Science Degree in Business Management. Three years later, he earned a Master
of Arts Degree in Theology from the Chicago
Theological Seminary, and in 1993, received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law.
He has also
been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the Chicago Theological Seminary,
Governors State University, North Carolina A & T State University, Charles
R. Drew Univ. of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse
School of Medicine.
Brother Jackson has co-authored A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights (2001) with Frank E.
Watkins. He has also co-authored Legal Lynching II (2001), It's About the Money
(1999) and Legal Lynching (1996).
Brother Jackson resides in the Second Congressional District of
Illinois with his wife Sandi, daughter Jessica Donatella, and son Jesse L.
Jackson, III.