Biography
Jesse L. Jackson was arrested with his sons Jesse Jr. and Jonathan after they linked arms and sang on the steps of the South African Embassy. They chose to spend the night in jail to dramatize the campaign against apartheid.
Photo credit
Jesse Jackson at South African Embassy: 1979, Washington Area Spark Flickr archive. Portrait crop from the documentary photograph; used with permission.
Custody record
An American Libraries participant interview documents brief jail detention and release on bond after the July 16, 1960 Greenville library sit-in. This is separate from the 1985 embassy-protest detention; a full twenty-four-hour term is not claimed.
As an A&T student leader during Greensboro’s desegregation campaign, Jackson was arrested at noon on June 6, 1963, on a warrant charging inciting a riot. A State Highway Patrol memorandum to Governor Terry Sanford records the individual arrest. This was a separate episode from his 1960 arrest and 1985 anti-apartheid detention; its prison admission, release and detention length remain unresolved.
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Editorial Unit: Demonstrations summaries, June–September 1963, PDF page 3; North Carolina State Highway Patrol memorandum to Governor Terry Sanford, June 7, 1963: racial incidents in Greensboro, June 6.
