Jesse Jackson Jr. Biography
Jesse Jackson Jr. is a former United States Representative representing Illinois’s 2nd congressional district, having served from 1995 until his retirement in 2012. He is a Democrat and the son of civil rights icon and former presidential contender Jesse Jackson. Jackson supported his father’s 1984 presidential candidacy as well as his father’s social justice, civil rights, and political engagement group, Operation PUSH.
How old is Jesse Jackson Jr.? – Age
He is 58 years old as of 11 March 2023. He was born in 1965 in Greenville, South Carolina, United States.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Family
He was one of Jesse Jackson and Jacqueline (Brown) Jackson’s five children. Jackson’s father acquired a place as an at-large member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) by a nomination from Democratic Party chairman Paul Kirk in 1988, after negotiations between his father and Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Jackson Jr. was the final of the five children to speak, introducing his father as “a man who fights against the odds, who lives against the odds, our dad, Jesse Jackson.”
Does Jesse Jackson have a Degree? – Education
He attended nursery school and John J. Pershing Elementary School at the University of Chicago. Jackson imitated his father in a speech atop a milk box at the Operation PUSH headquarters when he was five years old. His contact with his father was occasionally between political engagements. In high school, he was an all-state running back for St. Albans School.
Jackson enrolled in North Carolina A&T University, his father’s alma school, and graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree magna cum laude. He took his father’s suggestion and attended the Chicago Theological Seminary, getting his master’s degree a year early but without becoming ordained. Jackson then transferred from Georgetown University Law Center to the University of Illinois for law school. In 1993, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law. Despite finishing his courses ahead of schedule, Jackson never took the bar test.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Wife
Sandi Stevens, the press secretary for United States Congressman Mickey Leland, introduced Jackson to his future wife. Following her first year at Georgetown University Law Center, the couple decided that public higher education would be more inexpensive and enrolled jointly at the University of Illinois College of Law. On June 1, 1991, they married while still law students. Jackson and Sandi have two children, Jesse III (“Tre”) and Jessica, and maintain two residences.
They own one in the South Shore neighborhood, which is in both the 2nd congressional district, which Congressman Jackson served in the United States House of Representatives, and the 7th ward, which his wife represented on the Chicago City Council as Alderman. Jackson filed for divorce from his wife in Cook County, Illinois, on July 14, 2016. In April 2018, they struck an agreement.
How tall is Jesse Jackson?
He stands at a height of 1.91 m.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $9 million.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Bipolar
Jackson took a medical leave of absence from the House on June 10, 2012, claiming tiredness. Jackson’s office announced on July 11, 2012, that he was being treated for a mental condition at a residential treatment center. His staff dismissed rumors that he was receiving treatment for alcoholism. Numerous news sites verified Jackson’s treatment for bipolar illness on August 13, 2012.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Books
He co-wrote It’s About the Money: How to Get Out of Debt, Build Wealth, and Achieve Your Financial Dreams in December 1999. The book is a self-help guide to reaching personal financial independence. The book is aimed for persons with minimal financial resources. He co-wrote Legal Lynching: The Death Penalty and America’s Future, also known as Legal Lynching II, in the fall of 2001. The anti-death penalty message was heard loud and clear with coauthors Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jackson Jr., and Bruce Shapiro. The book was written and published by two of America’s most renowned civil rights activists at a time when public opposition to the death sentence was at an all-time high.
It was a sequel to Jackson Sr.’s 1996 book Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty. Jackson Jr. co-wrote A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights with his press secretary, Frank Watkins, in 2001. The book contains an autobiographical biography as well as an exposition of his moral and political ideas. It examines the relationship between race and economy from colonial America to the present, with a look ahead. In addition to the research, it includes eight suggested constitutional reforms that Jackson believes are critical to achieving wider social and economic opportunity. Jackson has improved and formally suggested these constitutional modifications since the publication of this book.