This week on Explorer, host Ali Wentworth sits down with civil rights activist Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. to talk about his life and the struggle for rights.
Jackson describes how as a young man he was interested in all the usual things like playing ball and hanging out with friends. But it was in 1960 that his life really turned around and he became focussed on something larger than himself.
A protest at a library and the protestors subsequent arrest made him realise black people needed to stand up and protest the inequalities and lack of freedom. The right to use public ammeinities, the right to vote and the right for protection under the law.
He tells Wentworth that it has been a long struggle from the Selma to the White House with Barack Obama, but that great progress has been made.
Jackson says black people and other minorites are now freer than ever but still not equal.
An interview with Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. airs at 10:00 PM on National Geographic.