| Jesse attended the University of Illinois until the end of second semester and transferred to North Carolina A&T. He has stated his reasons included racial prejudice limited his participation at Illinois. |
| Jesse became student body president and played quarterback at A&T University. He became active in protests while there against segregation in restaurants, theatres and libraries. |
| Jesse Jackson graduated from university in 1964 with a sociology B.S. |
| Jesse Jackson dropped out of the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1966, with only three classes to go, in order to focus on the Civil Rights Movement full-time. |
| On July 16th, 1960, Jesse Jackson and seven others participated in a sit-in at the Grenville Public Library due to their policy to only allow whites. The group was arrested and two months later after their lawyer filed suit the library abandoned its segregation. |
| Jesse Jackson started working for Martin Luther King Jr. and participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches. |
| Martin Luther King Jr. chose Jesse Jackson to head the Chicago Operation Breadbasket operation in 1966. This organization attempts to improve black community economic conditions. |
| In 1967 Jesse Jackson was appointed the national director of Operation Breadbasket. |
| In 1968 Jesse Jackson was ordained as Baptist minister. |
| In 1971 Jesse Jackson forms Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). He also becomes the executive director from 1971 to 1986. |
| In 1983 Jesse Jackson announces his run for candidacy for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. He does not win the nomination. |
| In 1984 Jesse Jackson secured the release of 48 prisoners being held in Cuba. These prisoners were Cuban, and Cuban-American. |
| In 1984 Jesse Jackson secured the release of an African-American pilot being held in Syria. |
| Jesse Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition in 1986 - which is a national social justice organization. |
| Between 1992 and 2000 Jesse Jackson hosted the CNN show 'Both Sides with Jesse Jackson'. |
| In 1999 Jesse Jackson and Slobodan Milosevic negotiated the release of three US soldiers being held in Yugoslavia for over a month. |
| In 2000 Jesse Jackson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton, the U.S. President. |
| Jesse Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, which he announced in 2017. |
| Jesse Jackson married Jacqueline Lavinia in 1962 and are still married. They have 5 children together. He has also had a child with Karin Stanford in 1999. |