The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- December 6, 1999

Jackson to deliver keynote address at NCAA Convention

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. will be the keynote speaker at the NCAA's 94th annual Convention in San Diego.

Jackson will address delegates during the opening business session Sunday, January 9, in the Manchester Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency.

The opening business session is scheduled to begin at 3:45 p.m. and will include NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey's state-of-the-Association address and an Association-wide vote on the possible modification of Constitution 2.6. Jackson will speak at the end of the program.

It will be the second time in six months that Jackson has appeared before a large NCAA gathering.

In June, Jackson was a keynote speaker at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Jackson is president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and is one of America's foremost political figures. Over the past 30 years, he has played a pivotal role in movements for empowerment, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.

Jackson attended the University of Illinois, Champaign, on a football scholarship and later transferred to North Carolina A&T State University. After graduating from North Carolina A&T, he attended Chicago Theological Seminary until he joined the civil rights movement in 1965.

Jackson began his activism as a student leader in the sit-in movement and continued as a young organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He went on to direct Operation Breadbasket and 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.

In 1984, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a national social justice organization devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. In September 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged into the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to continue both philosophies and maximize its resources.

Presidential campaigns

Jackson's two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984 campaign won 3.5 million votes, registered more than one million new voters and helped the Democratic Party regain control of the Senate in 1986. His 1988 candidacy won seven million votes and registered two million new voters and helped to sweep hundreds of elected officials into office.

In 1990, Jackson was elected to the post of U.S. senator from Washington, D.C., a position also known as "Statehood Senator." The office was created to advocate for statehood for the District of Columbia, which has a population higher than five states yet has no voting representation in Congress.

A hallmark of Jackson's work has been his commitment to youth. He has visited thousands of high schools, colleges, universities and correctional facilities encouraging excellence, inspiring hope and challenging young people to award themselves with academic excellence and to stay drug-free. He has also been a major force in the American labor movement -- working with unions to organize workers and mediate labor disputes.

Jackson also has received numerous honors for his work in human and civil rights and for nonviolent social change. In 1991, the U.S. Post Office put his likeness on a pictorial postal cancellation, only the second living person to receive such an honor. He has been on the Gallup List of 10 Most Respected Americans for the past 10 years. He has also received the prestigious NAACP Spingarn Award, in addition to honors from hundreds of grass-roots and community organizations.