Rev. Jesse Jackson: "Nothing to hold us back" | 60 Minutes Archive

Overcoming Past Struggles and New Opportunities00:01

Some of us find ourselves now having struggled so long to get some clothes. We got them now. Struggled so long to go to a great school. We can go now and go to the University of Southern California and have access to the most intricate information any university has to offer in the world. And we sit there in a classroom with new books and learned teachers and nothing to hold us back. No, no cotton to pick, no tobacco to cure. Just sit there with nothing to do but learn and we just freeze.

What you want to be?

Rev. Jesse Jackson's Self-Help Program for Black School Children00:30

He is headquartered in Chicago, but his message so impressed the Los Angeles Board of Education that they asked him to supervise a $400,000 self-help program for black school children. The Los Angeles program started at the beginning of this school term, and Jackson hopes the concept will spread to other cities.

Building Confidence in Young Children

The idea is to build confidence starting with even the smallest children.

AND I AM SOMEBODY. [screaming] MY MIND IS A PEARL. I CAN LEARN ANYTHING.

Motivational Messages at Predominantly Black High Schools01:01

He carries that same message to predominantly black high schools in Los Angeles.

DOWN WITH DOPE. [screaming] DOWN WITH DOPE. UP WITH HOPE. UP WITH HOPE. NOBODY WILL SAVE US FROM US, FOR US, BUT US. BUT US. RIGHT ON. [applause]