Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson is one of America's foremost political figures. Over the past three decades he has played a major role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. Jackson has been called the "conscience of the nation" and "the great unifier." He is the best-known living American leader in the United States. Jesse Louis Jackson was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. A woman who did other people's laundry brought him into this world. The father was her married next door neighbor. Needless to say, Rev. Jackson wasn't