Jesse Louis Burns (later Jesse Jackson) is born in Greenville, South Carolina to Helen Burns and Noah Louis Robinson; he is later adopted by his stepfather, Charles Henry Jackson.
As a child living under Jim Crow segregation, Jackson later recalled that the Montgomery bus boycott helped change his acceptance of segregated practices.
Jackson graduates from Sterling High School and rejects a minor-league baseball contract to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship.
Jackson joins the Greenville Eight sit-in at the whites-only Greenville Public Library; the group is arrested for disorderly conduct, and the action contributes to the reopening of libraries in September 1960.
Jackson transfers from the University of Illinois to North Carolina A&T, later citing racial prejudice as limiting opportunities at Illinois.
Jackson marries Jacqueline Lavinia Brown.
At North Carolina A&T, Jackson is active in campus leadership and student government while also playing quarterback and engaging in civil-rights activism.
Jackson (center) with members of the Student Government at North Carolina A&T State University, c. 1964
Jackson graduates from North Carolina A&T with a B.S. degree in sociology and begins studying at Chicago Theological Seminary.
Jackson participates in the Selma to Montgomery marches and is soon given responsibilities within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Martin Luther King Jr. and colleagues select Jackson to head the Chicago branch of SCLC’s economic program, Operation Breadbasket; Jackson leaves seminary to work full-time in the civil rights movement.
Jackson is promoted to national director of Operation Breadbasket.
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated; Jackson becomes involved in SCLC leadership disputes afterward and later works on the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C.
Jackson is ordained as a minister.
Jackson mentors a young Al Sharpton, later appointing him youth director of Operation Breadbasket’s Brooklyn branch.
Jackson is named Omega Psi Phi Outstanding Citizen of the Year.
SCLC leader Ralph Abernathy orders Jackson to move Operation Breadbasket’s national office to Atlanta; Jackson refuses, escalating tensions.
Jackson organizes the Black Expo in Chicago to promote black capitalism and grassroots political power.
Jackson and Abernathy split; Jackson and much of his Operation Breadbasket staff resign from SCLC and begin planning a new organization.
Operation PUSH (People United to Save/Serve Humanity) officially begins operations in Chicago, oriented toward economic opportunity and political pressure.
Jackson speaks on a radio broadcast from Operation PUSH headquarters during its annual convention (photographed by John H. White).
Jackson speaking on a radio broadcast from the headquarters of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), July 1973
Jackson participates in a rally supporting the Hawkins–Humphrey full-employment bill (later the Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act).
Jackson participating in a rally, January 15, 1975
Jackson meets for four hours with James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., and states his belief that Ray was involved but did not kill King.
Jackson calls for a closer relationship between Black voters and the Republican Party, arguing it should compete for Black support.
Jackson receives the Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged.
Jackson becomes the first African-American man since Reconstruction to address a joint session of the Alabama Legislature, a moment seen as testing broader political appeal.
Jackson and Operation PUSH lead a boycott of Anheuser-Busch over minority employment concerns in its distribution network.
Jackson travels to Syria and secures the release of captured U.S. pilot Robert Goodman.
Jackson announces his candidacy for president in the 1984 election, mounting a nationwide campaign as a Democrat.
After Goodman’s release, Jackson and Robert Goodman are welcomed to the White House by President Ronald Reagan, boosting Jackson’s national profile.
Jackson organizes the Rainbow Coalition and resigns as president of Operation PUSH to focus on his presidential bid (while remaining involved as board chairman).
Jackson negotiates the release of 22 Americans held in Cuba after an invitation by Fidel Castro.
At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, Jackson delivers his “Rainbow Coalition” speech and becomes the first person to mention gays and lesbians in a major-party convention speech.
During Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration period, Jackson leads supporters in a procession in Washington, D.C., emphasizing economic justice and protection for the poor.
Jackson participates as a leader of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights while seeking the 1988 Democratic nomination.
Jackson forms an exploratory committee for a 1988 presidential run.
Jackson announces his candidacy for president in the 1988 election.
On Super Tuesday, Jackson wins several contests including Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, strengthening his standing in the race.
Jackson wins the Michigan primary in a major upset, briefly making him the front-runner in the Democratic nomination contest.
Jackson speaks at the Goodwill Games in Seattle.
Jackson speaking at the Goodwill Games in Seattle, 1990
Jackson serves as the District of Columbia’s unpaid “shadow senator,” primarily lobbying for D.C. statehood.
Jackson travels to Iraq to meet Saddam Hussein and negotiates the release of several Britons and 20 Americans held as “human shields.”
Jackson begins hosting CNN’s talk show Both Sides with Jesse Jackson.
Jackson joins the 30th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial.
Jackson speaks at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition merge into a combined organization.
Jackson accepts an appointment from President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa.
During the Kosovo War, Jackson travels to Belgrade and negotiates with Slobodan Milošević for the release of three U.S. POWs captured near the Macedonian border.
A daughter is born from Jackson’s affair with staffer Karin Stanford (the affair later becomes public in 2001).
Jackson is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
Jackson endorses Al Gore for president, later participating in protests and legal actions tied to the Florida election recount.
Jackson is awarded a Master of Divinity by Chicago Theological Seminary based on earlier credits and his life’s work.
Jackson’s affair with Karin Stanford becomes public; he briefly withdraws from activism and CNN suspends and later cancels his talk show.
After the September 11 attacks, Jackson says he was invited/accepted in principle to mediate with the Taliban, but ultimately declines the trip.
Jackson is named as a target of the 2002 white supremacist terror plot.
Jackson speaks in London’s Hyde Park to an estimated crowd of over one million at the culmination of the February 15 anti-war protest against the impending invasion of Iraq.
Jackson publicly supports same-sex marriage.
Jackson is enlisted in the UK’s Operation Black Vote campaign encouraging ethnic-minority voter participation ahead of the 2005 UK general election.
Jackson is arrested during a protest at a gun store in Riverdale, Illinois, and is charged with criminal trespassing after refusing to stop blocking the entrance.
Jackson declares support for Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries.
Jackson is hospitalized with dehydration and stomach pains and is diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis.
Jackson speaks at the United Nations.
Jackson at the United Nations in March 2012
After President Obama announces support for same-sex marriage, Jackson supports the decision and compares marriage equality struggles to earlier civil-rights fights.
Jackson attends Hugo Chávez’s funeral and later makes an incorrect on-air claim about U.S. presidents who owned slaves.
After the shooting of Michael Brown, Jackson travels to Ferguson, marches with protesters, and calls for federal involvement after a decision not to indict the officer.
Jackson receives an honorary Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Edinburgh.
Jackson is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Jackson endorses Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary.
Jackson is appointed Commander of France’s Legion of Honor by President Emmanuel Macron.
Jackson and his wife are hospitalized with COVID-19; Jackson later moves to a rehabilitation facility while continuing care for Parkinson’s.
Jackson is arrested during a protest urging Congress to end the filibuster, protect voting rights, and raise the federal minimum wage to $15.
Jackson announces plans to step down as leader of Rainbow/PUSH due to age and health complications.
Jackson writes in The Chicago Maroon about the Gaza war, condemning the October 7 attacks while criticizing Israel’s response and expressing support for campus protests.
Rainbow PUSH reports Jackson’s diagnosis is changed to progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
Jackson is hospitalized in Chicago; in December, his family reports he is in an acute nursing facility in stable condition before later being discharged.
Jackson dies at his home in Chicago at age 84; tributes follow from U.S. political leaders and civil-rights figures.
Jackson lies in state at Rainbow/PUSH headquarters in Chicago, with public viewings and remarks from prominent attendees.
Jackson lies in state at the South Carolina State House, the second African American to do so after Clementa Pinckney, followed by a memorial service in West Columbia, South Carolina.
A public memorial service is held in Chicago (House of Hope), with major national figures expected and participating.