South Carolina’s own Reverend Jesse Jackson made history challenging library segregation with the Greenville Eight.
Did you know that before Jesse Jackson’s honorable role as a civil rights leader and marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was involved in a sit- in protesting racial segregation in public libraries? He once recounted how humiliating it was to not have access to books. After being denied at the main library, Jackson vowed to return in the summer to advocate for desegregation.
On July 16, 1960, Jesse Jackson was one of eight students who courageously entered the whites-only Greenville Public Library. By September, the libraries allowed integration. Jackson has been a leader for change and later witnessed Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, became the first viable African- American presidential candidate, and negotiated the release of international hostages and prisoners.
Reverend Jesse Jackson’s early activism for desegregating libraries in South Carolina laid the foundation for his enduring legacy as a pivotal leader in the civil rights movement and beyond.
