Samuel Jackson grew up in Washington, D.C., and Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the only child in his family. He initially wanted to be a marine biologist and was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. After Martin Luther King Jr. died in 1968, Samuel Jackson served as usher at his funeral. Shortly thereafter, Samuel Jackson traveled to Memphis for an equal rights protest march, the beginning of Samuel Jackson's active advocacy of political and social injustice.
In 1969, Samuel Jackson helped transform Morehouse College. However, the board was largely made up of white men, and Samuel Jackson and other students felt they needed to be better represented at that level. Their solution was to hold board members hostage, demand the hiring of people of color for key positions, and revise courses. Two days later, the board members agreed to the requests.
Although Samuel Jackson helped change Morehouse College, he was arrested for unlawful detention and suspended for two years. During this time, he worked as a social worker in Los Angeles, but in an interview he denied participating in the "Black Panther Party" movement. After the suspension, Samuel Jackson returned to Morehouse College to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and began his pursuit of acting.
In the late 1980s, Samuel Jackson began to make appearances on a small scale and worked with big-name directors. In Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, he played a small role in coming to America as a robber, which paved the way for his character shift. But after playing other supporting roles in Patriot Games, Jurassic Park, and True Love Like Blood, his role as Jules in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction was a real breakthrough.
After that, Samuel Jackson took on a major role in Die Hard and made his debut as Mace Windu in 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In the early 2000s, he starred in "Schaffles", "Undead Robbery", "Coach Carter", "Snake on the Plane" and "Superman Agents". It was also at this time that Samuel L. Jackson got a role that would define his career for the next decade — S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.