4/30/09
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4/30/09 |
Lincoln, Ill. –Lincoln College is pleased to announce that Illinois Second District Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. will give this year’s Commencement address. The 142nd commencement ceremonies will take place on Saturday, May 9, 2:00 p.m., in Davidson-Sheffer Gymnasium on campus. Approximately 200 students will receive Associates degrees during the ceremony. Congressman Jackson will also receive the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lincoln College. The press and public are invited to attend.
Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. began service in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1995. He was sworn in as a member of the 104th Congress, the 91st African-American ever elected to Congress. He currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee, serving as the 4th most senior Democrat on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; the Vice Chair or 2nd most senior Democrat on the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; and a member of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies.
“He has accomplished a great deal in his public service career and he sets an inspiring example of how much can be accomplished in a young life. We are honored and very privileged to have him join us as this year’s commencement speaker,” said Lincoln College President John Hutchinson.
The eldest son of civil rights activist and former presidential candidate, the Reverend Jesse Jackson; Representative Jackson, has spent his adult life in service to his country and fighting for the rights of others – often the poor and unrepresented. Indeed, he spent his 21st birthday in a jail cell for taking part in a protest against apartheid in front of the South African Embassy.
Representative Jackson’s leadership created the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health in 2001, hailed by many minority health experts as the most important civil rights legislation since the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He also secured funding for the Institute of Medicine’s 2002 report on health disparities, “Unequal Treatment.” In addition, Mr. Jackson is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Prior to his congressional service, Representative Jackson served as the National Field Director of the National Rainbow coalition. In this role, he instituted a national non-partisan program that successfully registered millions of new voters.
In 1987, Representative Jackson graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Theology from the Chicago Theological Seminary, and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law.
He is the co-author of A More Perfect Union: Advancing New American Rights (2001) with Frank E. Watkins. He also co-authored, Legal Lynching II (2001), It’s About the Money (1999) and Legal Lynching (1996).
A reception for the graduates and their families will immediately follow the ceremony.
Lincoln College was founded in 1865 as Lincoln University, the only institution of higher education named for Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime. It is a selective, two-year, private, liberal arts college located in Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln College is designed to prepare a student for university study through a structured, supportive approach to learning. Approximately 89% of Lincoln College graduates transfer immediately to a four-year school where they succeed as well as or better than the native student. Student-teacher ratio at Lincoln College is 13:1 and the average class size is 16 students.