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Some people would say he's verbose. Others may call him loquacious. But that silver tongue of the Reverend Jesse Jackson has provided some positive highlights along his illustrious career and some wild gaffs that he has had to publicly take cover.
Jackson had some athletic talent out of high school. Attempts were made to sign him to a professional baseball team after his graduation, but the two-sport star accepted a college football scholarship to the University of Illinois. The freshman quarterback ended up back in the North Carolina area after only one year and he went on to study at North Carolina A&T.
The decade of the 60s changed Jackson's life. As he was working toward a divinity degree, he began working closely with the civil rights movement, specifically with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His work including participating in a growing civil rights struggle in the South that helped him grown close to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackson's association with King and his commanding oratory presence catapulted him to become a leading voice for the black movement after King's assassination that has survived until this day.
Jackson leadership had its glory days and its days in the rain. Twice he ran for U.S. President – in 1984 and 1988 – and in both contests he always garnered more support than his critics imagined. But it seems his tongue could always get him in trouble.
He famously denied...then admitted...he called New York Hymie-town. At time he has been caught with a 'hot mike' making disparaging remarks about German Jews or hearing 'too much about' the Holocaust. His last little slip up had more to do with another body part. In 2001, Jackson admitted that he has fathered a love child with one of his staffers.
