Forgive Rev. Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson made a mistake stating, in his objection of Senator Barack Obama's Father's Day speech on personal responsibility by African-American fathers, that he would like to "cut Senator Barack Obama's nuts (meaning testicles) off"
. A graphic 'figure of speech', no doubt. Jackson felt that Obama was "speaking down" to African-American fathers. Bill O'Reilly even announced on his Fox Cable-TV News program, that "Jackson used the n-word in an un-released audio/visual in the same setting. Jackson was one of many marching for the abolishment of the "n-word" in the media and social group settings. Most would agree that if O'Reilly is telling the truth about Jackson stating the n-word, that Jackson is a hypocrite on the n-word issue. I would agree. As stated though, on the n-word issue and further on a reverend's use of "nuts" to invoke a crunching egotistical blow to Senator Obama.Well, well, well --- so now what? Should we castrate Jackson or should we forgive him and move on. Jackson has made comments in the past that have upset individuals and groups. He apologized to these individuals and groups also. Most of them forgave him. However, are you in the mindset that Jesse Jackson should go away, especially now with the magnitude of the Obama moment. Or are you in the mindset that Jesse Jackson has done a tremendous amounts of work in his lifetime on behalf of American citizens (especially African-Americans) in gaining fair treatment from public, corporate, education, and private organizations. What is your answer?
I say forgive Jesse Jackson...again...because Jackson's total body of work speaks for itself. And Jackson is further committed to doing more great works. I call Jackson slip of the tongue "An ego moment". Jackson frustrated with Obama's father's day speech that few seem to want to disect and debate the speech. Some talk show hosts and journalist that took the time to re-visit the Father's Day 2008 speech by Senator Obama are evenly divided on their interpretations. Some say that it reminds them of Bill Cosby's "bootstrapes" speech a few years ago when Cosby chastised poor Black youths in these times of rapid inflation. Cosby's speech opened minds and hearts, but overwhelmingly critics felt that Cosby jumped on poor Blacks from high above, without working on a concrete solution. One thing for Bill Cosby to be angry about our teenage brothers and sisters high school graduation rate, yet another thing to do nothing about it but talk and create morally correct cartoons. I think Jesse Jackson visualized Senator Obama's speech having the same characteristics, thinking that Obama will do nothing about African-American fatherless situations but talk on Fathers day, and then go on to other issues probably re-visiting the fatherless issue next year at a Black church on Fathers day. You be the judge about whether Obama cares enough to lift a finger to solve the problem, or just makes another speech about it.
Let's further dive into the reasoning behind Jesse Jackson's "ego moment" versus focusing on the name calling.
Some folks think Obama's Father's Day speech is a 'heads up', "put your boot straps on", 'get with program' motivation speech. The "there's no excuse brotha" message for those Black males that fit the so-called "dead beat" description. Attack the father without asking the father the questions first. Questions like: Why? What happened? Tell me your story brother? Mothers are the only ones that seem to have a patent on 'the point of view', screw asking the Black man anything. Children even fall into the chastising the father as mothers demand that they do. No need to ask Dad anything. Child Support judges do the same. But judges have never been to keen on hearing the Black man. Social workers won't give a mother a livable check if the Dad lives there. Hello.
Easy to blame the absent father away from from the day to day family unit. There are other variables, and too often obstacles, that tend to complicate Fathers being 'freely' admitted into their kids' lives. One of the variable is the mother being married to another man. Fortunate that step-fathers are not like the vicious step-fathers from a Lions world, where the new male "lion king" kills and eats the lioness's pups when they take over as head of the table. Unfortunate that human step-fathers way too often complicate the fathers visitation rights due to jealousy about the real father having had sex with his wife. This is a common pitfall for the absent father. Will anyone ask the father that question? The question to ask the father: Can you freely see your kids now that your ex-wife or ex-lady now married with another man? How about this common scenario: The mother is vindictive towards the father for not marrying her or leaving her and the kids? If the mother is vindictive toward the father period, then that tells me that the mother had a problem in the first place, which is why she is vindictive towards the father now. Vindictive in this scenario had two definitions with both working in unison: 1. The mother will not allow the father to see the kids, and 2. The mother brainwashes the kids to hate their father. In the second definition, if the kids are once allowed to see their father, then the kids will have a bad attitude. The father will then understand where that bad attitude came from and refrain from seeing the kids until they get out from under the mother's umbrella. How about Child Support entrapment from the vindictive mother? Now.....will Barack Obama touch on these man-to-man questions direct with African-American fathers; or will Obama think that it is more important to go to Afghanistan, Europe, and Asia.
Other critiques of Obama's father's day speech can say that decades of the Government's public welfare system would not allow financially-straped African-American men to live in their families home in order to receive consistent welfare payments. There is also increased African-American fathers in jails due to the excessive Maximum Minimum intitiative implement by Bill Clinton. Some can point to "Anti-Black Man hiring practices" or "Anti-Black Man promotion to Corporate Management", too often implemented by thousands of Corporations, which in turn guts family's finances. High costs of college surpassing the mean incomes of African American families, which is one of the "hope-less" statistical variables leading to a high level of African-American males dropping out of high schools to get a job. Getting a job prevails over an un-reachable higher education in today's high inflationary world we live in. You may recall two-year colleges were free in the 60's through the early-80's, that propelled movements into middle-class homes. So many of our livable jobs pre-requisite is a college degree. There are too many "infrastructural reasons" as to why African-American families are detiorating in the new milliniem. They need proper attention to detail, instead of the harsh criticism with no action.
Whichever side you choose to take in your critique or admiration of Senator Obama's father's day speech, the issue ain't going nowhere for Black men...nor White men or Hispanic men for that manner. Recent Statistics show that for the first time in the history of the United States, there are more un-wed mothers with kids in the United States than there are married mothers with kids. Women have more opportunities for jobs now and can keep a roof over their kids heads themselves. Women do not have to deal with a problematic relationship with the father or vice-versa. Don't assume that both the mother and father under the same roof with the kids is best. Nor assume that it is best to have the father in the kids life, if the father - or mother for that matter - has problems damaging to kids.
I am not agreeing with Jackson nor Obama. But both Jesse and Barack need to take a better look at the variables that face fathers, and hopefully work together to mend the father-less fences. Jumping on Absent-Fathers is easy to create a speech about it, and even easier to critique the predicable speech. But Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama and former Presidential Candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson, it is much harder to do something about it. People with such busy social and political schedules normally do not set a priority to sitting down with absent-fathers to hear their not-so-popular side of the story.
Throughout history there have been clashes amongst leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X did not see eye to eye, neither did Fred Hampton and Stockley Carmichael. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois disagreed in approaches to get to the summit of the same exact mountain. Frederick Douglas and Nat Turner took different approaches in their fight to end slavery. While Jesse Jackson was caught with his pants down, Jackson's verbal hot-mic error does not mean that Jackson does not want Senator Obama to become President. It is obvious that Rev. Jackson and Senator Obama do not see eye-to-eye on each and every issue. Political Analyst and African-American commentators all seem to agree that there is some sort of generational jealousy by Jesse Jackson, and most of the Congressional leaders over 60 years old. Most of them supported Hilary Clinton in the primaries.
We forget that Jesse Jackson was in Hilary Rodham Clinton shoes in 1988 as the number two Democratic Presidential candidate. Jesse Jackson came very close to becoming the Democratic Nominee in 1988. In that 1988 Democratic contest Rev. Jesse Jackson had more votes than Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, and Gary Hart. We tend to think of Jesse Jackson as the one of few African-Americans that ran for the Democratic Nomination. Jesse Jackson would have been the Democratic Nominee for President, if he did not make another popular slip of the tongue in the 1984 Democratic Presidential primary season. In the 1984 Democratic Primary season, Rev. Jackson called the city of New York "Hymietown" and the Jews in New York "Hymies" in an interview with Washington Post Journalist Milton Coleman. The comment was not supposed to be printed by Coleman -- Black journalist -- but Coleman printed it anyway.
We also forget that in 1992 when Bill Clinton won the Democratic Nomination -- with Michael Dukakis (1988 Democratic nominee) out of the way -- Rev. Jesse Jackson was slated to be Clinton's Vice-President. As we know, the Arkansas Govenor Bill Clinton picked Tennessee Senator Al Gore. In 1988 Democratic Primary, Al Gore was well below Jesse Jackson in the popular vote. Democratic Presidential candidate Jackson had 6.8 million votes (30% of the vote) to Gore's 3.1 million votes (13% of the vote) in 1988. Arkansas's Bill Clinton did not feel that a Black man as V.P. would be a winning ticket. In essence, the Black vote was taken for granted by the Democratic Party under Clinton, though Jackson received a sizable white vote in 1988 - more than Gore.
In reading about Jesse Jackson's past, Jackson had to leave his home region to go to college because of segregation in South and North Carolina Universities. Jesse Jackson later had to leave University of Illinois because they did not start Black Quarterbacks in the Big Ten and most major Universities.
I have heard many African-Americans wanting to throw Jesse Jackson "under the bus" for his off-air Obama comments, simular to many African-Americans throwing Tavis Smiley under the bus for his negative commentary against Obama on the Tom Joyner National Radio show. I say forgive Jesse Jackson as we still need his effective ways to solve a number of local and national problems. Rev. Jackson is on the same team bus, its just that Jackson is feuding with other teammates over preparations to win the big game.
Jesse Jackson has made us all proud with uplifting words in his many many speeches. Jesse Jackson has saved thousands of Corporate jobs for African-Americans when racial practices were used to "fire or not promote" African-American employees. Through running a stellar Democratic Presidential Campaign in 1984 (placed third) and 1988 (placed second), Jackson made it possible for Senator Obama to know that there was a possibility of getting millions of votes -- as Jackson did in both 1984 and 1988 -- when Obama was in his twenties. Senator Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination over a formidable opponent in Bill Clinton's wife New York Senator Hilary Clinton, was entirely hopeful due to Rev. Jesse Jackson respectfully competing in 84 and 88. Jesse Jackson won South Carolina and 13 other primaries and caucuses, defeating Bill Clinton's 1992 Vice Presidential running mate Al Gore by a large margin.
Forgive Jesse Jackson and accept Jackson's apology as Senator Obama has. Morally we are very disappointed in Jesse Jackson for his naughty statement. As African-American parents, we are still cringging as our kids must listen to such verbage from a preacher man. However Jesse Jackson has opened many doors and "kept hope alive" long enough for us all to be hopeful that after the votes have been tallied on November 5th. 2008, we can look to Senator Obama and see Obama stand up to salute the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the same manner as newly elected President John F. Kennedy in 1960 tipped his top hat to his ailling father Joseph Kennedy. Billionaire Joseph Kennedy greased many palms with millions of his own money, and raised millions more, to see his son John Fitzgerald Kennedy become a young President of the United States.
Below is the Wikipedia bio of Jesse Louis Jackson that includes the final vote tally from the 1984 and 1988 Democratic Presidential contest:
____________________________________________________
Jackson was born Jesse Louis Burns in Greenville, South Carolina, to Helen Burns. Helen Burns was a 16-year old single mother when he was born. His biological father, Noah Louis Robinson, a former professional boxer and a prominent figure in the black community, was married to another woman when Jesse was born. He was not involved in his son's life. In 1943, two years after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson who would adopt Jesse 14 years later. Jesse went on to take the surname of his stepfather.
B. Education
Jackson attended Sterling High School, a segregated high school in Greenville, where he was a student-athlete. Upon graduating in 1959, he rejected a contract from a professional baseball team[clarify] so that he could attend the racially integrated University of Illinois on a football scholarship. However, one year later, Jackson transferred to North Carolina A&T located in Greensboro, North Carolina. There are differing accounts for the reasons behind this transfer. Jackson claims that the change was based on the school's racial biases which included his being unable to play as a quarterback despite being a star quarterback at his high school as well as being demoted by his speech professor as an alternate in a public speaking competition team despite the support of his teammates who elected him a place on the team for his superior abilities.[1] ESPN.com reports a different story, however. Claims of racial discrimination on the football team may be exaggerated because Illinois's starting quarterback that year was an African American. In addition, Jackson left Illinois at the end of his second semester after being placed on academic probation.[2] Following his graduation from A&T, Jackson attended the Chicago Theological Seminary with the intent of becoming a minister, but dropped out in 1966 to focus full-time on the civil rights movement.[3] He was ordained in 1968, without a theological degree; awarded an honorary theological doctorate from Chicago in 1990; and received his earned Master of Divinity Degree in 2000.[4][5]
C. Civil rights leader
Jackson sits beside Ken Livingstone at an Anti-Apartheid rally in 1985This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It may be deleted after seven days from the date of nomination.
In 1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders in Alabama. When Jackson returned from Selma, he threw himself into King’s effort to establish a beachhead of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Chicago. In 1966, King selected Jackson to be head of the SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, and promoted him to be the national director in 1967. Following the example of Reverend Leon Sullivan of Philadelphia, a key goal of the new group was to foster “selective buying” (boycotts) as a means to pressure white businesses to hire blacks and purchase goods and services from black contractors. One of Sullivan's precursors was Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a wealthy South Side doctor and entrepreneur and key financial contributor to Operation Breadbasket. Before he moved to Chicago from Mississippi in 1956, Howard, as the head of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, had successfully organized a boycott against service stations that refused to provide restrooms for blacks
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks on a radio broadcast from the headquarters of Operation PUSH, (People United to Save Humanity) at its annual convention. July, 1973. Photograph by John H. White.
Jackson was with King in Memphis, Tennessee when King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, the day after King's famous "I’ve been to the mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple.
Jackson has been known for commanding public attention since he first started working for King in 1966. His primary goal for this attention has been to give blacks a sense of pride. He has also stressed that success as a race will be achieved by command through the electoral process.[6]
Beginning in 1968, Jackson increasingly clashed with Ralph Abernathy, King's successor as head of the national SCLC. In December, 1971, they had a complete falling out. Abernathy suspended Jackson for “administrative improprieties and repeated acts of violation of organizational policy.” Jackson resigned, called together his allies, and Operation PUSH was born during the same month. The new group was organized in the home of Dr. T.R.M. Howard who also became a member of the board of directors and chair of the finance committee.
In 1984, Jackson organized the Rainbow Coalition, which later merged, in 1996, with Operation PUSH. The newly formed Rainbow PUSH organization brought his role as an important and effective organizer to the mainstream. Al Sharpton also left the SCLC in protest to follow Jackson and formed the National Youth Movement.[7]
D. International activities
Jackson surrounded by marchers carrying signs advocating support for the Hawkins-Humphrey Bill for full employment, January 1975.
During the 1980s, he achieved wide fame as an African American leader and as a politician, as well as becoming a well-known spokesman for civil rights issues. His influence extended to international matters in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1983, Jackson traveled to Syria to secure the release of a captured American pilot, Navy Lt. Robert Goodman who was being held by the Syrian government. Goodman had been shot down over Lebanon while on a mission to bomb Syrian positions in that country. After a dramatic personal appeal that Jackson made to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, Goodman was released. Initially, the Reagan administration was skeptical about Jackson's trip to Syria. However, after Jackson secured Goodman's release, United States President Ronald Reagan welcomed both Jackson and Goodman to the White House on January 4, 1984[8]. This helped to boost Jackson's popularity as an American patriot and served as a springboard for his 1984 presidential run. In June 1984, Jackson negotiated the release of twenty-two Americans being held in Cuba after an invitation by Cuban president Fidel Castro.[9]
He caused a stir in 1995 when he wrote to the FOX network protesting an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in which the "White Ranger" said "White Power" as a battle-cry. Jackson later retracted his statement, but FOX nonetheless censored the line in future airings.
He traveled to Kenya in 1997 to meet with Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi as United States President Bill Clinton's special envoy for democracy to promote free and fair elections. In April 1999, during the Kosovo War, Jackson traveled to Belgrade to negotiate the release of three U.S. POWs captured on the Macedonian border while patrolling with a UN peacekeeping unit. He met with the then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević, who later agreed to release the three men.[10]
His international efforts continued into the 2000s. On February 15, 2003, Jackson spoke in front of over an estimated one million people in Hyde Park, London at the culmination of the anti-war demonstration against the imminent invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and the United Kingdom. In November 2004, Jackson visited senior politicians and community activists in Northern Ireland in an effort to encourage better cross-community relations and rebuild the peace process and restore the governmental institutions of the Belfast Agreement. In August 2005, Jackson traveled to Venezuela to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, following controversial remarks by televangelist Pat Robertson in which he implied that Chávez should be assassinated. Jackson condemned Robertson's remarks as immoral. After meeting with Chávez and addressing the Venezuelan Parliament, Jackson said that there was no evidence that Venezuela posed a threat to the U.S. Jackson also met representatives from the Afro Venezuela and indigenous communities.[11]
According to an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in Feb 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader" with 15% of the vote. He was followed by Condoleezza Rice with 11%.[12]
E. Presidential candidate
1. 1984 election
On November 3, 1983, he announced his campaign for presidency.[13] In 1984, Jackson became the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat.
In the primaries, Jackson, who had been written off by pundits as a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination, surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984,[14] and won five primaries and caucuses, including Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi.[15]
As he had gained 21% of the popular vote but only 8% of delegates, he afterwards complained that he had been handicapped by party rules. While Mondale (in the words of his aides) was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential candidate by picking a woman or visible minority, Jackson criticized the screening process as a "p.r. parade of personalities". He also mocked Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul–Minneapolis" area. [16]
2. 1988 election
Four years later, in 1988, Jackson once again offered himself as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. This time, his successes in the past made him a more credible candidate, and he was both better financed and better organized. Although most people did not seem to believe he had a serious chance at winning, Jackson once again exceeded expectations as he more than doubled his previous results, prompting R.W. Apple of the New York Times to call 1988 "the Year of Jackson". [17]
He captured 6.9 million votes and won 11 contests; seven primaries (Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and Virginia) and four caucuses (Delaware, Michigan, South Carolina and Vermont).[18]. Jackson also scored March victories in Alaska's caucuses and Texas's local conventions, despite losing the Texas primary.[3] [4] Some news accounts credit him with 13 wins. [5] Briefly, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan Democratic caucus, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total number of pledged delegates.
In early 1988, Jackson organized a rally at the former American Motors assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, approximately two weeks after new owner Chrysler announced it would close the plant by the end of the year. In his speech, Jackson spoke out against Chrysler's decision, stating "We have to put the focus on Kenosha, Wisconsin, as the place, here and now, where we draw the line to end economic violence!" and compared the workers' fight to that of the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama. As a result, the UAW Local 72 union voted to endorse his candidacy, even against the rules of the UAW.[19] However, Jackson's campaign suffered a significant setback less than two weeks later when he was defeated handily in the Wisconsin primary by Michael Dukakis. Jackson's showing among white voters in Wisconsin was significantly higher than in his 1984 run, but was also noticeably lower than pre-primary polling had indicated it would be. The discrepancy has been cited as an example of the so-called "Bradley effect".[citation needed]
Jackson's campaign had also been interrupted by allegations regarding his half-brother Noah Robinson, Jr.'s criminal activity.[20] Jackson had to answer frequent questions about his brother, who was often referred to as "the Billy Carter of the Jackson campaign". [21]
On the heels of Jackson's narrow loss to Dukakis the day before in Colorado, Dukakis' comfortable win in Wisconsin terminated Jackson's momentum. The victory established Dukakis as the clear Democratic frontrunner, and he went on to claim the party's nomination, but lost the general election in November.[22]
3. Campaign platform
In both races, Jackson ran on what many considered to be a very liberal platform. Declaring that he wanted to create a "Rainbow Coalition" of various minority groups, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Arab-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, family farmers, the poor and working class, and homosexuals, as well as European American progressives who fit into none of those categories, Jackson ran on a platform that included:
creating a Works Progress Administration-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans,
reprioritizing the War on Drugs to focus less on mandatory minimum sentences for drug users (which he views as racially biased) and more on harsher punishments for money-laundering bankers and others who are part of the "supply" end of "supply and demand"
reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs
cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration
declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation
instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union
giving reparations to descendants of black slaves
supporting family farmers by reviving many of Roosevelt's New Deal–era farm programs
creating a single-payer system of universal health care
ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment
increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all
applying stricter enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and
supporting the formation of a Palestinian state.
With the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies, none of these positions made it into the party's platform in either 1984 or 1988.
4. Abortion
Although Jackson was one of the most liberal members of the Democratic Party, his views on abortion were originally more in line with anti-abortion views. Jackson once endorsed the Hyde Amendment, which bars the funding of abortions for low-income women through the federal Medicaid program. He wrote an article published in a 1977 National Right to Life Committee News report:
"There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life... that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned. What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have twenty years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth."
However, since then, Jackson has adopted an openly pro-choice view, believing the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy is fundamental and should not be infringed in any way by the government.[23]
He ran for office as "Shadow Senator" for the District of Columbia in 1991,[24] and served as such through 1997 when he did not run for re-election. This non-voting position in the Senate was created primarily as a post to lobby for statehood for the District of Columbia.[25] In the mid-1990s, he was approached about being the United States Ambassador to South Africa but declined the opportunity in favor of helping Jesse Jackson, Jr. run for the United States House of Representatives.[26]
5. 2004 presidential election
Jackson gathered information and support to investigate the 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy, particularly the voting results in Ohio and its recount. He called for a congressional debate on the matter, asking for a fair count and national voting standards, saying that the elections in the United States are each run with different standards by different states with partisan tricks, racial bias, and widespread incompetence and are an open scandal.
Jackson said that he held some hope that the election could be overturned, although he admitted that that was very doubtful. Jackson compared the voting irregularities of Ohio to that of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, saying that if Ohio were Ukraine, the U.S. presidential election would not have been certified by the international community. Jackson called Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell inappropriately partisan and said that Blackwell may have been pressured by President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney to deliver Ohio to the Republican Party.
Based on information obtained in hearings held by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and discovered during a flawed recount of the Ohio presidential vote called for by Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik, Jackson suggested that the Ohio voting machines were "rigged" and that some African-Americans were forced to stand in line for six hours in the rain before voting. When asked for evidence, Jackson did not give facts, but replied, "Based on distrusting the system, lack of paper trails, the anomaly of the exit polls."
On January 6, 2005, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff released a 100 page report on the Ohio election. This challenge to the Ohio election was rejected by a vote of 74-1 by the United States Senate and 267-31 in the House. Many high-ranking Democrats chose to distance themselves from this debate, including John Kerry, despite Jesse Jackson personally asking Kerry for help. The call for election reform legislation and voting rights protection nonetheless continued.
F. Current activities
Jesse Jackson at the Los Angeles mayoral inauguration of Antonio Villaraigosa in 2005.
While Jackson was initially critical of the "Third Way" or more moderate policies of Bill Clinton, he became a key ally in gaining African American support for Clinton and eventually became a close advisor and friend of the Clinton family. Clinton awarded Jackson the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest honor bestowed on civilians. His son, Jesse Jackson, Jr., also emerged as a political figure, becoming a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. Jackson is also known as a passionate orator, in the tradition of Southern U.S. and African American Protestant preaching. In 2003, Jackson surprised many observers by declining to endorse the campaigns of either Al Sharpton or former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the two African American candidates, in the race for the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nomination. Instead, Jackson remained largely silent about his preference in the race until late in the primary season, when he allowed Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, another presidential candidate, to speak at a Rainbow/PUSH forum on March 31, 2004. Although he did not explicitly voice an endorsement of Rep. Kucinich, Jackson described Kucinich as "assuming the burden of saying 'you make the most sense, but you can't win.'"[27] He also writes for The Progressive Populist.
In 2005, he was enlisted as part of the United Kingdom's "Operation Black Vote", a campaign to encourage more of Britain's ethnic minorities to vote in political elections ahead of the May 2005 General Election. Also in early 2005, Jackson visited the parents of Terri Schiavo and their supporters; he supported their unsuccessful bid to keep the disabled Florida woman alive. In March 2006, an African American woman accused three European American members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team of raping her. Jackson stated that his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would pay for the rest her college tuition regardless of the outcome of the case. The case against the three men was later thrown out and the players were declared innocent by the North Carolina Attorney General.[28]
Jackson took a key role in the scandal caused by comedic actor Michael Richards' racially charged comments in November 2006. Richards called Jackson a few days after the incident to apologize; Jackson accepted Richards' apology [29]and met with him publicly as a means of resolving the situation. Jackson also joined black leaders in a call for the elimination of the "N-word" throughout the entertainment industry. [30]
On June 23rd, 2007 Jackson was arrested in connection with a crowd protesting at a gun store in Riverdale, a poor suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Jackson was protesting the fact that the gun store allegedly had been selling firearms to local gang members and was contributing to the decay of the community. According to police reports, Jackson refused to stop blocking the front entrance of the store and let customers pass. He was charged with one count of criminal trespass to property. [31]
G. Controversies
It has been suggested that some of the information in this article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) be merged into other sections to achieve a more neutral presentation. (Discuss)
1. Remarks about Jews
Jackson has been criticized for some of the remarks he has made about Jews and Jewish issues. Most infamously, Jackson referred to Jews as "Hymies" and to New York City as "Hymietown" in January 1984 during a conversation with Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman. Jackson at first denied the remarks, then accused Jews of conspiring to defeat him. When he finally did acknowledge that it was wrong to use the term, he said he did so in private to a reporter.[32]
The Nation of Islam's leader Louis Farrakhan, threatened Coleman in a radio broadcast and issuing a public warning to Jews, made in Jackson's presence: "If you harm this brother [Jackson], it will be the last one you harm." Finally, Jackson apologized during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue. Yet Jackson refused to denounce Farrakhan, and continuing suspicions have led to an enduring split between Jackson and many Jews.[32]
Among Jackson's other remarks were that Richard Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five [of Nixon's top advisors] are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia"; that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust"; and that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs". Jackson has since apologized and was invited to speak in support of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.[33]
2. Extra-marital affair
The Nation of Islam's leader Louis Farrakhan, threatened Coleman in a radio broadcast and issuing a public warning to Jews, made in Jackson's presence: "If you harm this brother [Jackson], it will be the last one you harm." Finally, Jackson apologized during a speech before national Jewish leaders in a Manchester, New Hampshire synagogue. Yet Jackson refused to denounce Farrakhan, and continuing suspicions have led to an enduring split between Jackson and many Jews.[32]
Among Jackson's other remarks were that Richard Nixon was less attentive to poverty in the U.S. because "four out of five [of Nixon's top advisors] are German Jews and their priorities are on Europe and Asia"; that he was "sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust"; and that there are "very few Jewish reporters that have the capacity to be objective about Arab affairs". Jackson has since apologized and was invited to speak in support of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.[33]
2. Extra-marital affair
Married since 1962 to Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, Jackson was in 2001 shown to have had an affair with a staffer, Karin Stanford, that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Ashley. According to CNN, in August of 1999, The Rainbow Push Coalition had paid Stanford $15,000 in moving expenses and $21,000 in payment for contracting work.[34] This incident prompted Jackson to withdraw from activism for a short period of time.[35] Separate from the 1999 Rainbow Coalition payments, Jackson pays $3,000 a month in child support.[35]
3. Remarks about Senator Barack Obama
Before a Fox News interview on July 6, 2008, a live microphone picked up Jackson whispering to a fellow guest: "See, Barack's been, ahh, talking down to black people on this faith-based... I want to cut his nuts off... Barack, he's talking down to black people?" in an apparent response to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's recent speeches on values.[36] Jackson later apologized and reiterated his support for Obama.[37]
H. Family
Wife: Jacqueline Lavinia Brown (b. March 17, 1944, m. December 31, 1962)[6][7]
Daughter: Santita Jackson (b. July 16, 1963)[8]
Son: Jesse Jackson, Jr. (b. March 11, 1965)
Son: Jonathan Luther Jackson (b. January 7, 1966)[9]
Son: Yusef DuBois Jackson (b. Sept. 26, 1970)[10]
Daughter: Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson (b. Sept. 2, 1975)[11]
Daughter: Ashley Stanford (b. May 1999, mother: Karin Stanford)
1984 Democratic presidential primaries[39]
Walter Mondale - 6,952,912 (38.32%)
Gary Hart - 6,504,842 (35.85%)
Jesse Jackson - 3,282,431 (18.09%)
John Glenn - 617,909 (3.41%)
George McGovern - 334,801 (1.85%)
Unpledged - 146,212 (0.81%)
Lyndon LaRouche - 123,649 (0.68%)
Reubin O'Donovan Askew - 52,759 (0.29%)
Alan Cranston - 51,437 (0.28%)
Ernest Hollings - 33,684 (0.19%)
Walter Mondale - 2,191 (56.41%)
Gary Hart - 1,201 (30.92%)
Jesse Jackson - 466 (12.00%)
Thomas F. Eagleton - 18 (0.46%)
George McGovern - 4 (0.10%)
John Glenn - 2 (0.05%)
Joe Biden - 1 (0.03%)
Martha Kirkland
Michael Dukakis - 9,898,750 (42.47%)
Jesse Jackson - 6,788,991 (29.13%)
Al Gore - 3,185,806 (13.67%)
Dick Gephardt - 1,399,041 (6.00%)
Paul M. Simon - 1,082,960 (4.65%)
Gary Hart - 415,716 (1.78%)
Unpledged - 250,307 (1.07%)
Bruce Babbitt - 77,780 (0.33%)
Lyndon LaRouche - 70,938 (0.30%)
David Duke - 45,289 (0.19%)
James Traficant - 30,879 (0.13%)
Douglas E. Applegate - 25,068 (0.11%)
Michael Dukakis - 2,877 (70.09%)
Jesse Jackson - 1,219 (29.70%)
Richard H. Stallings - 3 (0.07%)
Joe Biden - 2 (0.05%)
Dick Gephardt - 2 (0.05%)
Lloyd Bentsen - 1 (0.02%)
Gary Hart - 1 (0.02%)
Two candidates who won the highest number of vote takes two shadow seats.
Jesse Jackson (D) - 105,633 (46.80%)
Florence Pendleton (D) - 58,451 (25.89%)
Harry T. Alexander (I) - 13,983 (6.19%)
Milton Francis (R) - 13,538 (6.00%)
Joan Gillison (R) - 12,845 (5.69%)
Keith M. Wilkerson (D.C. Statehood) - 4,545 (2.01%)
Anthony W. Peacock (D.C. Statehood) - 4,285 (1.90%)
John West (I) - 3,621 (1.60%)
David L. Whitehead (I) - 3,341 (1.48%)
Sam Manuel (Socialist Workers) - 2,765 (1.23%)
Lee Black (I) - 2,728 (1.21%)
posted by Kirk Tanter at
7/13/2008 05:31:00 pm
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