Born out of wedlock in Greenville, South Carolina, as Jesse Louis Burns, in 1941, Jackson, as a teenager, would take the last name of his stepfather. His childhood, like those of millions of Black people across the Jim Crow South, was one wracked by crippling poverty, rigid segregation, and the visceral, ever-present threat of physical violence. In a 1988 interview with Canadian television, he noted, “Suffice it to say, I grew up under the laws of apartheid in this country, lived under racial segregation, an environment that fostered low expectations. Something told me I could make a difference.” An athlete, he traveled north to attend the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, only to drop out and return home to become a member of the “Greenville Eight,” who, in 1960, conducted sit-ins to integrate the Greenville County Public Library, thus marking his entry into the rapidly advancing Civil Rights Movement. Returning to school at North Carolina A&T College and marrying Jacqueline Lavinia Davis, he continued to help lead local protests and demonstrations. Following graduation, he enrolled at …