SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES (Part 3) Individualists from the Periods of Rising Self-Interest Calhoun, John C(aldwell) 1782 -- 1850 US vice-president and orator, born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, USA. During a long political career, he was the secretary of war (1817--25) and the secretary of state (1844) and he served as vice-president under two presidents. During the War of 1812, he was a "War Hawk' in Congress. He sought the presidency in 1824, but received the office of vice-president under John Quincy Adams (1825--9). He feuded with Adams and then supported Andrew Jackson in the 1828 elections. He became Jackson's vice-president in 1829--32. He had originally been a nationalist, but by the late 1820s he had become a firm advocate of states' rights - particularly the right of the state to nullify the effects of a federal law within that state's borders. In 1832, the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina led Calhoun to resign the vice-presidency and to accept a vacant Senate seat from South Carolina; he had been frustrated by the rules that prevented a vice-president from speaking out on the issue of nullification. He remained in the Senate until his death, with the exception of a brief period as President Tyler's secretary of state (1844). Although his views on states' rights and slavery have long since been repudiated, no one has ever doubted his sincerity and eloquence. Tyler, John 1790 -- 1862 Tenth US president, born in Charles City County, Virgina, USA. Trained as a lawyer, Tyler steadily ascended the political ladder, gaining the state legislature in 1811, the US House of Representatives (1816--19), the Virginia governorship (1825--7), and the US Senate (1827--36). Highly active as a senator, he maintained a states' rights position and resisted all attempts to regulate slavery; he resigned from the Senate to protest President Jackson's antinullification measures. Gravitating to the anti-Jackson Whigs, Tyler won election as William Henry Harrison's vice-president in 1840, then ascended to the presidency on Harrison's death in April 1841. He soon alienated his Whig supporters by resisting a new national bank; at one point he had to lead the White House staff in holding off a violent mob, and in 1843 the Whigs even threatened to impeach him. Nonetheless, his term saw the Webster-Ashburton Treaty fixing the borders of the US and Canada; he also encouraged the move to annex Texas. Long out of the public eye after failing to be nominated in 1844, Tyler headed a Southern peace mission to find a compromise to avoid splitting the Union in 1861. When that failed, he voted for Virginia to secede and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives just before his death. Linn, Lewis Fields 1795 -- 1843 Physician, U.S. senator; born near Louisville, Ky. A surgeon in the War of 1812, he set up his practice in Missouri, and was then appointed to serve that state in the U.S. Senate (Dem., 1833--43). An exponent of "manifest destiny," his Oregon Bill of 1843 provided liberal land grants and military defense of that territory. Whitman, Marcus 1802 -- 1847 Physician, missionary; born in Rushville, N.Y. He established a mission near present-day Walla Walla, Wash., in 1836. After returning east, he brought over 900 settlers to Washington in 1843. Following a measles epidemic in which many Indians died but most whites survived, he and his wife were killed by Cayuse Indians. Douglas, Stephen A. (Arnold) 1813 -- 1861 U.S. representative/senator; born in Brandon, Vt. Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1834, after a distinguished career in state politics Douglas was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (Dem., Ill.; 1843--47) and to the U.S. Senate (1847--61). Known as the "Little Giant" to his followers (because he was short and dynamic) he supported sectional compromise to avoid the threat of disunion in the 1850s. In the 1858 senatorial campaign, he debated Republican politician Abraham Lincoln seven times in what became known as the "Lincoln-Douglas debates." Although he won reelection to the Senate, his increasingly inconsistent positions on the slavery issue would cost him the support of many Democrats. In 1860, as the Northern Democrats' candidate for president, he was defeated by Lincoln. He at once called for support of Lincoln in his efforts to preserve the union, but, exhausted by his speaking tour, he died of typhoid fever less than two months after the Civil War began. Bidwell, John 1819 -- 1900 Pioneer and public official, born in Chatauqua County, New York, USA. He moved to Missouri (1839) and then to California (1841). He worked at John Sutter's fort and was active in the short-lived Bear Flag Republic (1846). He found gold on the Feather River and became California's leading rancher. He was in the US House of Representatives (Unionist, Calif; 1865--7) and was the Prohibition Party candidate for the presidency in 1892. Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow 1856 -- 1924 Twenty-eighth U.S. president; born in Staunton, Va. Son of a Presbyterian minister, he studied at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, gaining his Ph.D. with the first of his major books on American government, Congressional Government (1885). After teaching at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan (1885--90), he moved to Princeton, whose president he became in 1902 and where his reforms had a wide impact on American university education. In 1910, Wilson entered politics as a Democrat and was elected governor of New Jersey (1911--13); his liberal reforms brought him national attention and the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 (although only on the 46th ballot). With the Republicans split between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson won by a landslide. He effectively continued a reformist program he called the "New Freedom"; his initiatives included lowering tariffs, a graduated income tax, the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the eight-hour workday, and landmark laws against child labor. On the international front he was less successful, especially in his attempts to intervene in Mexican politics. He won reelection in 1916 with a pledge to keep America out of the European war, but found the U.S.A. inexorably drawn in; declaring war on Germany in April 1917, he proposed a peace in the form of the "Fourteen Points," which brought Germany to the bargaining table in late 1918. Much of the world now hailed him as virtually a savior, but at the Versailles Peace Conference he was confronted by the compromises of Realpolitik. On his return to America his dream of a League of Nations - largely due to his refusal to compromise - went down to defeat in Congress as his health collapsed. He spent his last months in office incapacitated (his wife served as his intermediary for many decisions) and in 1921 retired to seclusion. Undeniably one of the most intelligent and high-minded presidents the U.S. has had, he was also rigid in certain ways and unresolved in others so that when it came to the climax of his life's work - America's entry into a League of Nations - he was unable to make the appropriate moves. Taft, William Howard 1857 -- 1930 Twenty-seventh US president, born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Having studied at Yale and practiced law in Cincinnati, he gravitated to Republican politics and held several appointments and a judgeship in Ohio. In 1890 he began two years as US solicitor-general under President Benjamin Harrison, then became a federal circuit judge (1892). He left that position in 1900 when President William McKinley sent him to the Philippines, where he became civil governor. In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt made Taft the secretary of war and his chosen successor. An extremely large man, easy-going and conciliatory, Taft did not really want to be president but he was elected in 1908. He had an uneasy tenure as president; although he pursued antitrust prosecutions like his predecessor, he was perceived to be allied with conservative Republicans. That led to Roosevelt's party-splitting run in 1912, ensuring a victory for the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. After some years of teaching at Yale Law (1913--21), Taft was named chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1921, a position he enjoyed far more than being president. He served until one month before his death, and although known more for his reform of court operations, he participated in several major decisions. Roosevelt, Theodore 1858 -- 1919 Twenty-sixth U.S. president. Born October 27, 1858 in New York City (fifth cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt). A strong nationalist and a resourceful leader, Theodore Roosevelt gloried in the opportunities and responsibilities of world power, and during his years in office he greatly expanded the power of the presidency. He especially enlarged the United States role in the Far East and Latin America. At home he increased regulation of business, encouraged the labor movement, and waged a long, dramatic battle for conservation of national resources. He also organized the Progressive party (1912) and advanced the rise of the welfare state with a forceful campaign for social justice. His father was of an old Dutch mercantile family long prominent in the city's affairs. His mother came from an established Georgia family of Scotch-Irish and Huguenot ancestry. A buoyant, dominant figure, his father was the only man, young Roosevelt once said, he "ever feared." He imbued his son with an acute sense of civic responsibility and an attitude of noblesse oblige. Partly because of a severe asthmatic condition, Theodore was educated by private tutors until 1876, when he entered Harvard College. Abandoning plans to become a naturalist, he developed political and historical interests, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and finished twenty-first in a class of 158. He also began writing The Naval War of 1812 (1882), a work of limited range but high technical competence. Four months after his graduation in 1880, he married Alice Hathaway Lee, with whom he had a daughter. Bored by the study of law in the office of an uncle and at Columbia University, Roosevelt willingly gave it up in 1882 to serve the first of three terms in the New York State Assembly. He quickly distinguished himself for his integrity, courage, and independence, and upon his retirement in 1884 he had become the leader of the Republican party's reform wing. Though his reputation was based on his attacks against corruption, he had shown some interest in social problems and had begun to break with laissez-faire economics. Among the many bills he drove through the Assembly was a measure, worked out with labor leader Samuel Gompers, to regulate tenement workshops. Roosevelt's last term was marred by the sudden deaths of his mother and his wife within hours of one another in February 1884. After the legislative session ended, he established Elkhorn ranch on the Little Missouri River in the Dakota Territory. Immersing himself in history, he completed Thomas Hart Benton (1886) and Gouverneur Morris (1887) and began to prepare his major work, the four-volume Winning of the West (1889-1896). A tour de force distinguished more for its narrative power and personality sketches than its social and economic analysis, it won the respect of the foremost academic historian of the West, Frederick Jackson Turner. It also gave Roosevelt considerable standing among professional historians and contributed to his election as president of the American Historical Association in 1912. Meanwhile, he published numerous hunting and nature books, some of high order. Politics and a romantic interest in a childhood friend, Edith Carow, drew Roosevelt back east. Nominated for mayor of New York, he waged a characteristically vigorous campaign in 1886 but finished third. He then went to London to marry Carow, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. In 1889, Roosevelt was rewarded for his earlier services to President Benjamin Harrison with appointment to the ineffectual Civil Service Commission. Plunging into his duties with extraordinary zeal, he soon became head of the Commission. He insisted that the laws be scrupulously enforced in order to open the government service to all who were qualified, and he alienated many politicians in his own party by refusing to submit to their demands. By the end of his six years in office Roosevelt had virtually institutionalized the civil service. Roosevelt returned to New York City in 1895 to serve two tumultuous years as president of the police board. Enforcing the law with relentless efficiency and uncompromising honesty, he indulged once more in acrimonious controversy with the leaders of his party. He succeeded in modernizing the force, eliminating graft from the promotion system, and raising morale to unprecedented heights. "It's tough on the force, for he was dead square ... and we needed him," said an unnamed policeman when Roosevelt resigned in the spring of 1897 to become President William McKinley's assistant secretary of the Navy. As assistant secretary, Roosevelt instituted personnel reforms, arranged meaningful maneuvers for the fleet, and lobbied energetically for a two-ocean navy. He uncritically accepted imperialistic theories, and he worked closely with senators Henry Cabot Lodge and Alfred Beveridge for war against Spain in 1898. Although moved partly by humanitarian considerations, he was animated mainly by lust for empire and an exaggerated conception of the glories of war. "No qualities called out by a purely peaceful life," he wrote, "stand on a level with those stern and virile virtues which move the men of stout heart and strong hand who uphold the honor of their flag in battle." Anxious to prove himself under fire, Roosevelt resigned as assistant secretary of the Navy in April to organize the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (the "Rough Riders"). He took command of the unit in Cuba and distinguished himself and his regiment in a bold charge up the hill next to San Juan. In late summer 1898, he returned to New York a war hero. Nominated for governor, Roosevelt won election in the fall of 1898 by a narrow margin. His two year administration was the most enlightened of the time. By deferring to the Republican machine on minor matters, by mobilizing public opinion behind his program, and by otherwise invoking the arts of the master politician, Roosevelt forced an impressive body of legislation through a recalcitrant Assembly and Senate. Most significant, perhaps, was a franchise tax on corporations. As the Democratic New York World concluded when he left office, "the controlling purpose and general course of his administration have been high and good." Roosevelt accepted the vice-presidential nomination in 1900. A landslide victory for McKinley and Roosevelt ensued. Then, on September 14, 1901, following McKinley's death by an assassin's bullet, Roosevelt was sworn in. Not quite 43, he became the youngest president in history. Roosevelt's first three years in office were inhibited by the conservatism of Republican congressional leaders and the accidental nature of his coming to power. He was able to sign the Newlands Reclamation Bill into law (1902) and the Elkins Antirebate Bill (1903); he also persuaded Congress to create a toothless Bureau of Corporations. But it was his sensational use of the dormant powers of his office that lifted his first partial term above the ordinary. On February 18, 1902, Roosevelt shook the financial community and took a first step toward bringing big business under Federal control by ordering antitrust proceedings against the Northern Securities Company, a railroad combine formed by J. P. Morgan and other magnates. Suits against the meat-packers and other trusts followed, and by the time Roosevelt left office 43 actions had been instituted. Yet he never regarded antitrust suits as a full solution to the corporation problem. During his second administration he strove, with limited success, to provide for continuous regulation rather than the dissolution of big businesses. Hardly less dramatic than his attack on the Northern Securities Company was Roosevelt's intervention in a five-month-long anthracite coal strike in 1902. By virtually forcing the operators to submit to arbitration, he won important gains for the striking miners. Never before had a president used his powers in a strike on labor's side. Roosevelt's conduct of foreign policy was as dynamic and considerably more far-reaching in import. Believing that there could be no retreat from the power position which the Spanish-American War had dramatized but which the United States industrialism had forged, he stamped his imprint upon American policy with unusual force. He established a moderately enlightened government in the Philippines, while persuading Congress to grant tariff concessions to Cuba. He settled an old Alaskan boundary dispute with Canada on terms favorable to the United States. And he capitalized on an externally financed revolution in Panama to acquire the Canal Zone under conditions that created a heritage of ill will. At the instance of the president of Santo Domingo, Roosevelt also arranged for the United States to assume control of the customs of that misgoverned nation in order to avert intervention by European powers. He had about the same desire to annex Santo Domingo, he said, "as a gorged boa constrictor might have to swallow a porcupine wrong-end-to." But he had already forestalled German intervention in Venezuela in 1902 and was anxious to establish a firm policy against it. So on May 20, 1904, and again in December, he set forth what became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The United States, he declared, assumed the right to intervene in the internal affairs of the Latin American nations in the event of "chronic wrongdoing" or "impotence." Roosevelt's first administration was also marked by a revitalization of the bureaucracy. The quality of appointees was raised, capable members of minority groups were given government posts (in 1906 Roosevelt named the first Jew, Oscar Straus, to a Cabinet position), and the civil service lists were expanded. At the same time, however, the President ruthlessly manipulated patronage so as to wrest control of Republican party machinery from Senator Mark Hanna and secure his nomination to a full term in 1904. "In politics," he disarmingly explained, "we have to do a great many things we ought not to do." Overwhelming his conservative Democratic opponent by the greatest popular majority to that time, Roosevelt won the election and carried in a great host of congressional candidates on his coattails. Although the resentment of the Republican party's Old Guard increased rather than diminished as his tenure lengthened, Roosevelt pushed through a much more progressive program in this second term. His "Square Deal" reached its finest legislative flower in 1906 with passage of the Hepburn Railroad Bill, the Pure Food and Drug Bill--an amendment providing Federal regulation of stockyards and packing houses--and an employers' liability measure. Yet he probably did even more to forward progressivism by using his office as a pulpit and by appointing study commissions such as those on country life and inland waterways. Several of his messages to Congress in 1907 and 1908 were considered extremely radical. In the face of the Old Guard's open repudiation of him, moreover, he profoundly stimulated the burgeoning progressive movement on all levels of government. In conservation Roosevelt's drive to control exploitation and increase development of natural resources was remarkable for sustained intellectual and administrative force. In no other cause did he fuse science and morality so effectively. Based on the propositions that nature's heritage belonged to the people, that "the fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use," and that "every stream is a unit from its source to its mouth, and all its uses are interdependent," his conservation program provoked bitter conflict with Western states'-rightists and their allies, the electric power companies and large ranchers. In the end Roosevelt failed to marshal even a modicum of support in Congress for multipurpose river valley developments. But he did save what later became the heart of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by vetoing a bill that would have opened Muscle Shoals to haphazard private development. Roosevelt's pronounced impact on the international scene continued during his second term. He intervened decisively for peace in the Algeciras crisis of 1905-1906, and he supported the call for the Second Hague Conference of 1907. But it was in the Far East, where he gradually abandoned the imperialistic aspirations of his pre-presidential years, that he played the most significant role. Perceiving that Japan was destined to become a major Far Eastern power, he encouraged that country to serve as a stabilizing force in the area. To this end he used his good offices to close the Russo-Japanese War through a conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905; for this service he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He also acquiesced at this time in Japan's extension of suzerainty over Korea (Taft-Katsura Memorandum). By 1907, Roosevelt realized that the Philippines were the United States' "heel of Achilles." He had also come to realize that the China trade which the open-door policy was designed to foster was largely illusory. He consequently labored to maintain Japan's friendship without compromising American interests. He fostered a "gentleman's agreement" on immigration of Japanese to the United States. He implicitly recognized Japan's economic ascendancy in Manchuria through the Root-Takahira agreement of 1908. (Later he urged his successor, President William H. Taft, to give up commercial aspirations and the open-door policy in North China, though he was unsuccessful in this.) Rejecting suggestions that he run for reelection, Roosevelt selected Taft as his successor. He then led a scientific and hunting expedition to Africa (1909) and made a triumphal tour of Europe. He returned to a strife-ridden Republican party in June 1910. Caught between the conservative supporters of Taft and the advanced progressive followers of himself and La Follette, he gave hope to La Follette by setting forth a radical program--the "new nationalism"--of social and economic reforms that summer. Thereafter pressure to declare himself a candidate for the nomination in 1912 mounted until he reluctantly did so. Although Roosevelt outpolled Taft by more than two-to-one in the Republican primaries, Taft's control of the party organization won him the nomination in convention. Roosevelt's supporters then stormed out of the party and organized the Progressive, or "Bull Moose," party. During the three-cornered campaign that fall, Roosevelt called forcefully for federal regulation of corporations, steeply graduated income and inheritance taxes, multipurpose river valley developments, and social justice for labor and other underprivileged groups. But the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson, running on a more traditional reform platform, won the election. Within three months of the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, Roosevelt began his last crusade: an impassioned campaign to persuade the American people to join the Allies and prosecute the war with vigor. He believed that a German victory would be inimical to American economic, political, and cultural interests. As a result, he distorted the real nature of his thought by trumpeting for war on the submarine, or American-rights, issue alone. More regrettable still, he virtually called for war against Mexico in 1916. Following America's declaration of war in April 1917, Roosevelt relentlessly attacked the administration for failing to mobilize fast enough. Embittered by Wilson's refusal to let him raise a division, he also attacked the President personally. He was unenthusiastic about the League of Nations, believing that a military alliance of France, Great Britain, and the United States could best preserve peace. He was prepared to support Senator Henry Cabot Lodge's nationalistic reservations to the League Covenant, but he died in his home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, on January 6, 1919, before he could be effective. Haywood, William Dudley ("Big Bill'') 1869 -- 1928 Labor leader; born in Salt Lake City, Utah. A miner at age nine, he worked at other jobs but kept returning to mining. Joining the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) (1896) and elected secretary-treasurer (1900), he led the WFM through several violent years of labor strife. In 1905 he cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) with the goal of eventually uniting all unions in "one big union." Later that year he was accused of involvement in the murder of an antilabor former governor of Idaho, Frank Steunenberg; defended by Clarence Darrow, he was acquitted and became a hero to labor. But his continued radicalism, including a call to destroy capitalism, led the WFM to withdraw from the IWW, and, in 1918, to dismiss Haywood. A member of the Socialist Party from 1901, he was also dropped from that party's councils for advocating violence (1912). He gained a new following when he championed the organizing of unskilled workers and led textile strikes in Lawrence, Mass. (1912), and Paterson, N.J. (1913). Convicted of violating wartime alien and sedition acts, he was sentenced to 20 years in jail (1918) but jumped bail and fled to the Soviet Union (1921). Reagan, Ronald (Wilson) 1911 -- Fortieth United States president, former movie actor. Born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. A 1932 graduate of Eureka College (Illinois), he worked as a sportscaster for several radio stations in the Midwest. Discovered by a Hollywood agent, he was signed by Warner Bros., making his debut in Love is On the Air (1937). Reagan appeared in a total of 52 feature movies, his best roles being in Brother Rat (1938), Dark Victory (1939), and Kings Row (1941). During World War II, he made training films for the Air Force. He served as a spokesman for the General Electric Company from 1952 to 1962, hosting and occasionally acting on the television series, General Electric Theater. From 1962 to 1965 he served as the host of the television series Death Valley Days. Shifting from his Democratic Party affiliation, Reagan moved into Republican politics and emerged during the 1964 presidential election as a Goldwater Conservative. In 1966, he was elected governor of California; he served two terms, from 1967 to 1975, and carried out a generally conservative agenda. In 1968 and 1976 he failed in bids for the Republican presidential nomination. In 1980, however, Reagan easily beat Jimmy Carter in the election with promises of reducing taxes and government regulation while building up the military. Four years later, he defeated Walter Mondale by a landslide, confirming the success of his first term in office. In 1981, Reagan was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt by a mentally disturbed man, John Hinckley Jr. While in office from 1981 to 1989, Reagan fulfilled his political and economic promises with varied results, which included a growing national deficit and a shaky financial infrastructure. He signed a Social Security reform bill that aimed at a long-term strengthening of the system, yet his unswerving focus on supply-side economics helped exacerbate the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. In foreign affairs, he maintained an adversarial approach to the U.S.S.R. and communism everywhere. Many argue that the immense military spending under his administration contributed significantly to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. With little interest in or command of the details of government, he appealed to Americans with his genial manner and laissez-faire approach to the country's problems. Meanwhile, members of his administration, with at least his tacit approval, pursued secret and illegal arms-for-hostages deals with Iran, an enemy of the United States. The Reagan administration faced a crisis when these arrangements were revealed. After his vice president and anointed successor, George Bush, was elected in 1988, Reagan departed office still immensely popular, leaving the future to determine the value of his legacy. In 1994, Reagan revealed that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; his condition has deteriorated to the point that he very rarely makes public appearances. He and his first wife, the actress Jane Wyman, divorced in 1948; they had two children, Maureen and Michael. In 1952, Reagan married another actress, Nancy Davis; their children are Patricia and Ronald Prescott, who goes by Ron. Nancy Reagan runs the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides funding for the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California (north of Los Angeles), which opened in 1991. In 1999, Random House published Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, an official biography of Reagan, written by Edmund Morris. Jackson, Jesse (Louis) 1941 -- Civil rights leader. Born Jesse Louis Jackson on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, a city beset with the problems of racial segregation. From birth, Jackson faced his own personal brand of discrimination. As a young girl his mother, Helen Burns, became pregnant by her married next-door neighbor, Noah Robinson. Her son, Jesse, was shunned and taunted by his neighbors and school classmates for being "a nobody who had no daddy." Instead of letting this adversity defeat him, Jackson developed his exceptional drive and empathy for the oppressed. His mother eventually married and became a successful hairdresser while his stepfather, a postal employee, adopted Jackson in 1957. With helpful advice from his maternal grandmother and his own desire to succeed, Jackson overcame his numerous childhood insecurities, finishing 10th in his high school class, even though he was actively involved in sports. His academic and athletic background earned Jackson a football scholarship at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Jackson, eager to get away from the Southern racial climate, traveled north only to find both open and covert discrimination at the university and in other parts of the city. After several semesters Jackson decided to leave the University of Illinois, return to the South, and attend North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (A&T) in Greensboro, an institution for African-American students. Jackson again proved himself an able scholar and athlete. When his popularity on the campus led to his victory as student body president, Jackson did not take the responsibility lightly. As a college senior, he became a civil rights leader. Although he was not in Greensboro when the four African-American freshman from A&T staged their famous Woolworth's sit-in in February 1960—the action which launched sit-down demonstrations throughout the South—Jackson actively encouraged his fellow students to continue their protests against racial injustice by staging repeated demonstrations and boycotts. Much of the open discrimination in the South fell before the onslaught of these student demonstrations. Civil Rights Movement In the mid-1960s, Jackson began working for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr. In 1966, Jackson helped found the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, as the economic arm of the SCLC was known. In the spring of 1968, many officers of the SCLC—including Jackson—were drawn away from other civil rights protests by the garbage collectors' strike in Memphis, Tennessee. The situation in that city was especially tense because many African-Americans who professed to be tired of passive resistance were willing and ready to fight. Tragically, King met a violent death by an assassin's bullet while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Some controversy surrounds the moments just after King was wounded. Jackson claimed on national television that he was the last person to talk to King and that he had held the dying leader in his arms, getting blood all over his shirt. The other men present unanimously agreed that this was not true, that Jackson had been in the parking lot facing King when he was shot and had neither climbed the steps to the balcony afterward nor gone to the hospital with King. Whatever the truth of the matter, Jackson's appearance on national television the next day with his bloodied turtleneck jersey vaulted him into national prominence. The image of Jackson and his bloody shirt brought the horror of the assassination into American homes. Jackson's ego, stirring oratory and charismatic presence caused the media to anoint him and not Ralph Abernathy, King's successor. Many observers believe that at this point, Jackson determined to become heir to King's position as the nation's foremost African American leader. In 1971, Jackson was suspended from the SCLC after its leaders claimed that he was using the organization to further his own personal agenda. Operation PUSH After his suspension from the SCLC, Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an organization which essentially continued the work of Operation Breadbasket without SCLC's sponsorship. Standing in front of a picture of Dr. King, Jackson promised to begin "a rainbow coalition of blacks and whites gathered together to push for a greater share of economic and political power for all poor people in America." Throughout the decade, Jackson relentlessly spoke out against racism, militarism and the class divisions in American. He became a household name throughout the nation with his slogan "I Am Somebody". By the mid-1970s, Jackson was a national figure. He realized that many of the problems plaguing the African-American community stemmed from drug abuse and teen pregnancy and not simply economic deprivation. In 1976, Jackson created the PUSH-Excel, a program aimed at motivating children and teens to succeed. A fiery orator, Jackson traveled from city to city delivering his message of personal responsibility and self-worth to students: "You're not a man because you can kill somebody. You are not a man because you can make a baby...You're a man only if you can raise a baby, protect a baby and provide for a baby." Jackson's support within the African-American community allowed him to influence both local and national elections. Possibly the most important campaign in which he was involved was the election victory of the first African-American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington, in 1983. Washington's victory was attributed in part to Jackson's ability to convince over 100,000 African-Americans, many of them youths, to register to vote. Jackson would also use his charisma to garner new voters during his 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Rainbow Coalition Jackson's debut on the international scene occurred when President Jimmy Carter approved his visit to South Africa. Jackson attracted huge crowds at his rallies where he denounced apartheid, South Africa's oppressive system that prevented the black majority population from enjoying the rights and privileges of the white minority. Later in 1979, he toured the Middle East where he embraced Yassar Arafat, the then-exiled Palestinian leader. Jackson's embrace of a man considered a terrorist by the American government created yet another controversy. The result of these international excursions caused Jackson's fame and popularity to grow within the African-American community. As the 1980s began, Jackson moderated many of his political positions. He was no longer the flamboyant young man wearing long hair and gold medallions, but a more conservative, mature figure seeking ways to reform the Democratic party from within. He continued to advocate his "rainbow coalition" as a way for all Americans to improve the country. After growing increasingly disenchanted with the existing political scene, Jackson decided that he would campaign against Walter Mondale and Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic presidential primaries. His campaign centered on a platform of social programs for the poor and the disabled, alleviation of taxes for the poor, increased voting rights, effective affirmative action initiatives for the hiring of women and minorities, and improved civil rights for African-Americans, poor whites, immigrants, homosexuals, Native Americans, and women. Jackson also took a stand on many world issues. He called for increased aid to African nations and more consideration of the rights of Arabs. His support for Arab nations and African-American Muslims provoked much criticism, especially from Jewish voters. In early 1984, Jackson used his popularity in the Arab world to obtain the release of an American pilot, Lt. Robert Goodman, who had been shot down over Lebanon. When he returned home, Jackson concentrated on securing the African-American vote for his candidacy. He did not receive support from most senior African-American politicians, who felt that Jackson's candidacy would cause disunity within the Democratic camp and benefit the Republicans. However, many poor African-Americans enthusiastically supported him. Jackson received 3.5 million votes, and possibly 2 million of those voters were newly registered. He carried 60 congressional districts on a budget of less than $3 million. Although many Americans, both black and white, were decidedly opposed to Jackson, he earned grudging respect because his campaign fared better than most people had expected. When Jackson conceded defeat at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, much of America listened respectfully to his address. Although his campaign was unsuccessful, Jackson's powerful presence had broken new ground and involved more African-Americans in the political process. After the 1984 election, in which Ronald Reagan triumphed over Mondale, Jackson devoted his time between working for Operation PUSH in Chicago and his new National Rainbow Coalition in Washington, D.C. This national coalition was designed to be a force for reform within the Democratic Party. It also provided Jackson with a platform from which to mount his 1988 presidential bid. Jackson's campaign received a much broader base of support than in 1984. His polished delivery, quick wit, and campaign experience helped him to gain many new supporters. Among the seven serious contenders for the Democratic nomination, Jackson finished second to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who lost to Reagan’s vice president, George Bush, in the general election. In 1990, Jackson was named one of two "shadow senators" to Congress from Washington, D.C. to press for the district's statehood. Although the idea fizzled, it helped to keep Jackson in the public eye. In 1992, Jackson backed Democratic candidate Bill Clinton during the presidential campaign. He used his influence to urge African-American voters to support Clinton. These efforts helped Clinton to win the election over the incumbent Bush and return a Democrat to the White House for the first time in 12 years. Critics often accuse Jackson of simply being a cheerleader of causes, a person who favors style over substance. Despite his unflagging energy and devotion to his causes, many felt that he was devoted only to his own self-aggrandizement. "This is the long-term pattern of Jackson's politics. He has always sought to operate and be recognized as a political insider, as a leader without portfolio or without accountability to any constituency that he claims to represent" wrote political critic Adolph Reed Jr. in The Progressive. "PUSH ran as a simple extension of his will and he has sought to ensure that the Rainbow Coalition would be the same kind of rubber stamp, a letterhead and front for his mercurial ambition." Despite the criticism he has faced, Jackson continues to advocate for the rights of the downtrodden and challenge others to move beyond adversity. In 1995, Jackson wrote in Essence magazine, "People who are victimized may not be responsible for being down, but they must be responsible for getting up. Slave masters don't retire; people who are enslaved change their minds and choose to join the abolitionist struggle... Change has always been led by those whose spirits were bigger than their circumstances… I do have hope. We have seen significant victories during the last 25 years." In November 1999, Jackson came to the defense of six high school students expelled for fighting in Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur school board expelled the students for two years for their involvement in a brawl during a football game on September 17, 1999. After being pressured by Jackson, board members later reduced the punishment to one year and agreed to let the students attend an alternative school. Jackson met with the board to try to reach a compromise that would allow the students to return to regular classes, but the board refused to waver. As a result, Jackson led a protest march at Eisenhower High School where he was arrested on November 16, 1999, and later released on bond. He was charged with three counts each of criminal trespassing and contributing to the delinquency of a child. A federal judge later upheld the expulsions. Jackson received his master of divinity degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary on June 3, 2000. He had been only three courses short of earning his degree when he left the school to work with a minister more than three decades ago. On August 9, 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jackson. The medal is the highest civilian honor and may be awarded only by a U.S. president to individuals who have made contributions "especially meritorious to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Jackson and his wife of nearly four decades, Jacqueline, have five children, including a son, Jesse Jackson Jr., who is a Democratic congressman from Illinois. In January 2001, in response to tabloid reports, Jackson issued a statement admitting that he fathered a daughter, born in 1999, with a former staff member of his Rainbow Coalition, Dr. Karin L. Stanford.