The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leaders and spokespersons for African Americans, was born to a teenage single mother in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 8, 1941. After attending the University of Illinois and graduating from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, he devoted his energies to the civil rights movement by organizing sit-ins, marches, and other events with the goal of ending segregation. In 1965 he joined with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Throughout the 1960s he was especially active in Chicago, particularly in leading the SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket, which pressured businesses to hire more minority employees. In 1971, frustrated with the conservatism of the SCLC and its leader, Ralph Abernathy, he resigned to form People United to Save Humanity (PUSH). Meanwhile, in 1968, he was ordained as a Baptist minister.