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Jonathan Jackson, son of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson To Announce Candidacy For Mayor Of Chicago?
One of the first community organizers to work with Barack Obama in Chicago for over 20 years. Now AssociateEditor of The South Street Journal Newspaper and 37 yearactivist/journalist, recently selected as 2010 Who's Who In BlackChicago.
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Today, while at PUSH, a couple of the membersapproached me and made the comment that "we are glad to see you comeback in time to help Jonathan with his campaign," and of course my"journalist" cap came on when I asked "What Campaign,?" and they went onto say that Jonathan was planning to make an official declaration orExploratory announcement sometime after Labor Day. I responded that Iwas not back at PUSH today to connect with anyone for that purpose of aJackson Campaign For Mayor, but I did say that "if he is, then he needsto do it soon and step up strong if he is going to try and prove that isis the one candidate that can ignite the Black base." Because of whoJonathan Jackson is and the personal, professional, and politicalinfluence of his family name and "Rainbow" ties, he does indeed have thecapacity to become an immediate front runner as a sound candidate fromthe Black community, as well as sound constituency contacts acrossracial lines, and most importantly his business connection couldstrongly position him with the financial capacity to sustain a realvisible and winnable campaign against Mayor Daley.
But I alsorealized that there are at least two other candidates from the Blackcommunity who I know feel that they too have built a foundation for awinnable campaign, Attorney Christopher Cooper and Businessman/ActivistWilliam "Dock" Walls, so now is the Black community and its resourcesabout to be divided with no consensus that at some date certain theBlack community should have a united front around one strong candidate?Now this revelation made me change my original plans and go to theoffices of my Black Leadership Development Institute, BLDI and SouthStreet Journal Newspaper and immediately begin to contact a number ofgrassroots organizers and independent media people to convene some sortof "One Black Candidate Process." I'd like to think that I know them andmany of their key supporters well enough that they all know that TheBlack community should be able to unite around one candidate, but I alsoknow how political ego's can totally convince a candidate and campaignthat they are best choice all the way to the end, but Chicago's Blackelectorate core base of over 300,000 eligible voters have not voted for aBlack Mayoral candidate to defeat Daley in over 20 years and in myjudgment the only thing that will get then awake and up and out is aunited front.
If the radio audience on Chicago's legendary BlackTalk Station WVON is any indication of the support for Jonathan the hesurely would be one step ahead of the other two, for City College"Professor" Jonathan is a regular contributor to the Cliff Kelley show
,and no matter what the topic is that Jonathan is addressing, he cannever get away from the callers who regularly say that he should be acandidate for Mayor, and not just WVON, but Jonathan would almostimmediately generate more media attention from all media outlets thanthe other two candidate are struggling to get.
Well of course theorganizer, activist, analyst, and journalist hats in me forced them allto change my outdoor holiday plans today and the weekend in preparationof a possible announcement of Jonathan Jackson For Mayor Of Chicago andhow this one announcement will immediately impact the Chicago Mayor'sRace and the potential of waking up a sleeping giant of over 300,000Black voters who have been waiting for over 20 years a for candidate toemerge with a real shot of defeating Mayor Daley and if JonathanJackson, the son of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr, brother in law to AldermanSandi Jackson, brother of Congressman Jesse Jackson and godson of Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is FINALLY that Black candidate who time hascome. Stay Tuned.
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Jonathan Jackson (activist)
| Jonathan Luther Jackson | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 7, 1966 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | African American |
| Known for | Civil rights activist, businessman, professor |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Marilyn Richards |
| Parents | Jesse L. Jackson, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson |
Jonathan Luther Jackson (born January 7, 1966) is a civil rights activist, businessman and professor. He is the national spokesman for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and a partner in a Chicago-based beer distributorship, River North Sales and Service, LLC.
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[edit] Early life
Jackson was born Jonathan Luther Jackson in Chicago, Illinois, to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a noted civil rights activist and Baptist minister, and Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson. His godfather was the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. from which Jackson draws his middle name. The middle child of hisparents' five children, Jackson's siblings are Santita Jackson and U.S.Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., his elders, and Yusef, Jacqueline Jackson and Ashley, his younger siblings.[1]
[edit] Education
Jackson attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago, where he was a student-athlete.
He attended his parents' alma mater, North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, North Carolina, to study business.[2][3] He is a graduate of the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.[4]
[edit] Family
Jackson married Marilyn Ann Richards of Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1995.[5]
[edit] Civil and human rights activism
Born into a family steeped in human rights activism, Jackson has traveled the world as an aide de camp to his father.[6] He traveled to Syria in 1983, when the Rev. Jackson negotiated with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to release captured American pilot Navy Lt. Robert Goodman.[7] He met Fidel Castro in 1984, when his father negotiated the release of twenty-two Americans being held in Cuba.[8] He was also with his father in August 2005, when the Rev. Jackson traveled to Venezuela to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.[9] This followed controversial remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson where he implied Chávez should be assassinated. Jackson condemned Robertson's remarks as immoral.[9]
In 2007, Jonathan Jackson took on the issues of innocence and juvenile justice as national spokesman for the RainbowPUSH Coalition.[10] Jackson has highlighted the personal stories and continued trials ofthose who accused the Chicago Police Department of torturing them toobtain confessions that landed them in prison. They include DarrellCannon,[11]who faced the death penalty for a 1983 drug-related murder. Cannon wasreleased after accepting a January 2001 deal to abandon his tortureclaim in exchange for being released, according to the NorthwesternCenter on Wrongful Convictions. Jackson has also showcased the travailsof the Rev. Oscar Walden, who in 1952 became Illinois' first exoneree.Walden was freed after being sentenced to 75 years for a rape he didnot commit.[12]
Jackson has championed the cause of Johnnie Lee Savory,[13] a Peoria native who was convicted of stabbing to death his friends,Connie Cooper, 19, and her brother, James Robinson, 14, in their Peoriahome in 1977. After serving 38 years in prison, Savory was released onparole December 19, 2006. Jackson is among several notables who havepetitioned the Illinois governor -- first Rod Blagojevich, then Pat Quinn -- to order DNAtesting in the Savory case to prove that not only did Savory not killhis friends, but also to pinpoint the person widely suspected ofcommitting the crime.[14]
In 2008, he turned his attention to closures of Chicago Public Schools.[15] He has led several schools to public hearings and civic educationtraining to thwart school closures and turnarounds by private companiesin favor of investing in existing schools and keeping a community'sinstitutional memory intact -- especially in highly mobile neighborhoodswhere large numbers of students are homeless or living on the economicmargins.[16] In February 2010, he succeeded in helping Guggenheim Elementary School get off the closure list.[17]Guggenheim is situated in the Englewood community on the city's SouthSide. Jackson, among others, made the case that forcing students towalk any further to school put them in harm's way. They also made thecase that Guggenheim's test scores have steadily improved and it had aclose-knit community that possessed the momentum to achieve furthergains. Previously, Jackson had persuaded school officials to abandonplans to close Holmes Elementary School, in addition to others.[15]
Jackson's view of outsourcing public education mirrors that of an emerging vocal group of educators like New York University's DianeRavitch[18]and activists who assert that over-reliance on test scores andprivatizing of public schools through wholesale charters andoutsourcing allows schools to cherry-pick their student bodies whilesiphoning resources from the most marginalized children. They considerprograms like No Child Left Behind and charter schools as a divestment of public education.[19]
[edit] Career
Jackson started his career in 1988 at Drexel Burnham Lambert as an investment analyst for Michael Milken, an American financier and philanthropist, noted for his role in developing a market for high-yield bonds known as junk bonds. Jackson later worked as an analyst at Independence Bank, was a ShatkinArbor runner at the Chicago Board of Trade and developed real estatefor East Lake Management in Chicago. He rejoined Milken at KnowledgeUniverse in the late 1990s and currently engages in investments in thewireless, real estate and distribution sectors.[4]
In 1998, Jackson, with his brother Yusef, became owner of a Chicago-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. distributorship -- River North Salesand Service, LLC.[20]The deal was met with charges of skepticism and nepotism becauseJackson's father had previously organized a boycott of the brewery'sproducts in the early 1980s. The elder Jackson wanted the world'slargest brewery to do more business in the African-American community.[21]
In 2009, Jackson lead a group of minority investors in a $250 million bid to take over ION Media Networks, the country's largest chain of independent TV stations.[22] Partnered with Cyrus Capital Partners, a New York investment firm,Jackson argued that second-lien lenders are treated as second-classcitizens.[23]
He has taught finance and entrepreneurship at City Colleges of Chicago.[24]
[edit] References
- ^ MORGANTHAU, TOM; SYLVESTER MONROE (1983-11-14). "What Makes Jesse Run". Newsweek (Newsweek): pp. 50.
- ^ White, John (2005-12-25). "Jonathan Jackson Weds Marilyn Ann Richards In Elaborate Ceremony". Jet magazine (Johnson Publishing Co.): pp. 59.
- ^ "JESSE JACKSON'S 40 YEARS OF SERVICE". Jet magazine (Johnson Publishing Co.): pp. 38. 2006-11-20.
- ^ a b "Son of Jesse Jackson resigned...". Orlando Sentinel (Orlando Sentinel). 1989-06-01. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1989-06-01/news/8906011535_1_drexel-jackson-junk. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ White, John (1995-12-25). [ebonyjet.com "Jonathan Jackson weds Marilyn Ann Richards in elaborate ceremony"]. Jet magazine (Johnson Publishing Co.). ebonyjet.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Business Day, Business Day (2005-10-25). "South Africa; Jesse Jackson Gives Backing to SA's Aids Plans". Africa News.
- ^ "Reconnaissance Flights Will Continues". United Press International. 1984-01-10.
- ^ Davis, Lanny (2008-08-11). "Jesse Jackson's Post Racial Legacy". The Washington Times (The Washington Times.): pp. A04.
- ^ a b Pace, Gina (2005-08-29). "Venezuela Wants Pat Robertson May Ask U.S. To Extradite Him; Jesse Jackson Visiting Caracas". CBS News (CBS News). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/28/world/main798843.shtml. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ "Jonathan Jackson at a RainbowPUSH Coalition Press Conference when JonBurge is charged with perjury and obstruction in connection with atorture investigation." 22 October 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBzrDobvgrY
- ^ "Darrell Cannon at Press Conference discussing Jon Burge, who wascharged with perjury and obstruction in connection with a tortureinvestigation." 22 October 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xejwmAgnMPA&feature=related
- ^ "All Illinois Exonerations - Center on Wrongful Convictions". http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/ilIndex.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Douglas, Deborah (2008-11-14). "Memo to gov: Why no justice for innocent?". Chicago Sun-Times (Sun-Times Media): pp. 29. http://suntimes.com. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ "Johnnie Lee Savory, Center on Wrongful Convictions". law.northwestern.edu. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/newsandevents/savory.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ a b "Chicago Public Schools : CPS withdraws proposals for six schools". cps.edu. http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/2009/Pages/02_24_2009_PR1.aspx. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ "Stark contrasts between 2008 and 2009 Board meetings on schools closings, turnarounds, phase outs, etc. - Substance News". substancenews.net. http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=649. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ "Parents Concerned By Dangerous Walk To New School" Feb. 10, 2010, 10:34 p.m. Central, CBS Channel 2, http://cbs2chicago.com/local/cps.school.englewood.2.1486621.html
- ^ http://www.nysun.com/opinion/ravitch-offers-passionate-defense-of-americas/86906/
- ^ Ravitch, Diane (2010-04-02). "A new agenda for school reform". Washington Post (Washington Post). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040101468.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Staff reports, Johnson Publishing Co., "Yusef Jackson's Ownership GroupPurchases Anheuser-Busch Chicago Distributorship". Jet magazine1998-12-14
- ^ Flahery, Peter (2001-03-18). "Jesse came to do good and did well". The Baltimore Sun (The Baltimore Sun).
- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-douglas/turning-down-250-million_b_383323.html
- ^ "Cyrus Capital Extends Offer for ION Networks". TradingMarkets.com (TradingMarkets.com). 2009-11-16. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2656890/. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ "Kennedy-King College one of the City Colleges of Chicago". kennedyking.ccc.edu. http://kennedyking.ccc.edu/. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
[edit] External links
- http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/exonerations/ilIndex.html
- http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/issues/deathpenalty/clemency/chronology.html
- http://www.ncat.edu/events/spring04/alumni/celebrate.pdf
- http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-13211107.html
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