Jesse Jackson to pay Belfast tribute

United States civil rights campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson is to pay tribute to the work of community activists in Belfast during a visit to the city next month.

It was confirmed today that the former American presidential hopeful is to visit the city on November 11 to appear at the annual Ailsing Awards gala.

This year’s awards will focus on the contribution of Belfast’s ethnic communities to the life of the city.

It is the eighth year of the awards ceremony.

Previous winners have included New York firefighters, singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy, union leader Inez McCormack and Belfast’s first Sinn Féin Lord Mayor Alex Maskey.

Born in 1941 in Greenville, south Carolina, Mr Jackson became involved in civil rights while at college and in 1965 joined Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The Baptist minister campaigned against apartheid in South Africa and argued for the rights of Palestinians in the Middle East.

He is also a campaigner against social deprivation and is a founder of the Rainbow Coalition in the US which presses for equal rights and has sought private sector investment to help start businesses in poverty-stricken areas.

Mr Jackson twice sought the Democratic Party’s nomination for the US presidential election, missing out both times in 1984 and 1988.