According to the Chicago Reporter magazine, the area has the nation's second highest unemployment rate, next to Detroit.
Reverend Jackson says if America has the money to go to war, it can find funding for the country's struggling communities.
"We need the same things that, in a real sense, Afghanistan needs: urgency, priority, time table, a budget, economic reconstruction and a green zone," Jackson said.
The Chicago reporter magazine reported that the collective unemployment rate for the Auburn Gresham, Englewood, Washington Heights and West Englewood South Side neighborhoods was 23.2 percent last year.
