Brother Jesse Jackson is a American Civil Rights activist, politician and Baptist Minister. He began his career working for Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1965 Jackson participated in the Selma to Montgomery march that was organized by Dr. King, James Bevel and other Civil Rights leaders.
Dr. King was impressed by Jackson’s drive and organizational abilities. Dr. King gave Jackson a role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organiztion dedicated to the desegratation of bus systems across the south through non-violent means. Jackson was tasked with establishing a frontline office in Chicago after his return from the Selma-Montgomery march.
Bro Jackson formed Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), he would later change the name to People United to Serve Humanity.
In 1978 he called for a closer relationship between blacks and the Republican party. At the time he was quoted as saying “Black people need the Republican Party to compete for us so we can have real alternatives … The Republican Party needs black people if it is ever to compete for national office.”
In 1984 he would start the Rainbow Coalition and resign as president of PUSH to run for President of United States. He would run for the Democratic nomination again in 1987. In 1996 PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition would merge.
Bro Jackson was made a Mason on Site by the Grand Master Senter of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Illinois on 25th May 1987, Prince Hall Freemasonry is the oldest and largest African American fraternity in the United States. It was founded in 1775 by Prince Hall, a free Black man and civil rights activist.
The term a Mason on Sight (also Mason at Sight)- Making a Mason on Site is a power reserved for the Grand Master of some Jurisdictions, for individuals of high regard or otherwise pillars of society. It is a special initiation, like normal initiation process, condensed into a single ceremony.
Brother Jackson passed to the Grand Lodge Above on the 17th February 2026 and is laid to rest at the historic Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago
