Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Jesse Jackson has firmly
established himself as one of the most dynamic forces for social and political
action in both the national and international arenas. He has campaigned
for economic justice, human rights, world peace, and the United States
presidency. An inspirational speaker, committed activist, and tireless
and confident campaigner, Jackson began his career as a foot soldier in
the Civil Rights movement of the 196Os and has developed into a leader
of millions of Americans--black and white--a "rainbow coalition" of the
nation's dispossessed and disenfranchised.
Jackson has drawn upon his
own early experience in Greenville, South Carolina, to relate to his constituency.
He was born on October 8, 1941, to a seventeen-year-old unwed high school
student and her older, comfortably middle-class neighbor, a married man.
Jackson's ancestry includes black slaves, a Cherokee, and a white plantation
owner. Although the young Jackson was quite aware of poverty and illegitimacy,
his mother, grandmother, and stepfather were always able to attend to family
needs. Even so, his knowledge of social inequities and of his more privileged
half brothers affected him. As Barbara Reynolds wrote in her biography
Jesse
Jackson: America's David: "Every teacher Jesse came into contact with
took note of his insecurities, masked by a stoic sense of superiority.
They never perceived him as brilliant, but rather each saw him as a charmer,
a spirited, fierce competitor with an almost uncanny drive to prove himself
by always winning, always being number one in everything." At Sterling
High School Jackson was elected president of his class, the honor society,
and the student council, was named state officer of the Future Teachers
of America, finished tenth in his class, and lettered in football, basketball,
and baseball.
In 1959 Jackson left the
South to attend the University of Illinois on an athletic scholarship.
During his first year, however, he became dissatisfied with his treatment
on campus and on the gridiron and decided to transfer to Greensboro's North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, a predominantly black institution.
There he was quarterback, honor student, fraternity officer, and president
of the student body. After receiving his B.A. in sociology he accepted
a Rockefeller grant to attend the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he
planned to train for the ministry. Jackson was ordained a Baptist minister
in 1968, though he had not finished his course work at CTS, having instead
left in 1966 to commit himself full-time to the Civil Rights movement.
Jackson first became involved
in the Civil Rights movement while a student at North Carolina A&T.
There he joined the Greensboro chapter of the Council on Racial Equality
(CORE), an organization that had led early sit-ins to protest segregated
lunch counters. In 1963 Jackson organized numerous marches, sit-ins, and
mass arrests to press for the desegregation of local restaurants and theaters.
His leadership in these events earned him recognition within the regional
movement; he was chosen president of the North Carolina Intercollegiate
Council
on Human Rights, field director of CORE's southeastern operations, and
in 1964 served as delegate to the Young Democrats National Convention.
In Chicago in 1965 Jackson was a volunteer for the Coordinating Committee
of Community Organizations and organized regular meetings of local black
ministers and the faculty of the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Joined King and the SCLC in
1965
Jackson joined Martin Luther
King, Jr., and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1965
during demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, pushing for expanded voting rights
for blacks. When the SCLC launched the Chicago Freedom movement in 1966,
Jackson was there to put his knowledge of the city and contacts within
the black community to work for King. He organized local ministers to support
the movement, marched through all-white neighborhoods to push for open
housing, and began work on the SCLC's economic program, Operation Breadbasket.
Drawing from successful campaigns in other cities, Operation Breadbasket
organized the black community to use selective buying and boycotts to support
black manufacturers and retailers and to pressure white-owned businesses
to stock more of their products and hire more black workers. Jackson served
as Operation Breadbasket's Chicago coordinator for one year and was then
named its national director. Under Jackson's leadership the Chicago group
won concessions from local dairies and supermarkets to hire more blacks
and stock more products from black businesses. It encouraged deposits from
businesses and the government for black-owned banks and organized a Black
Christmas and a Black Expo to promote black-owned manufacturers.
In addition to his SCLC activities,
Jackson led a number of other campaigns in his adopted home city and state.
In 1969 and 1970 he gathered Illinois's malnourished and led them on a
march to the state capital to raise consciousness of hunger. He led a similar
event in Chicago. The state responded by increasing funding to school lunch
programs, but Mayor Richard Daley's machine in Chicago was less cooperative.
The mayor's power and resistance to change, as well as an Illinois law
that raised difficult barriers to independent candidates, prompted Jackson
to run for mayor of Chicago in 1971. He was not successful; some believe,
however, that his efforts laid the foundation for Harold Washington's successful
bid to become Chicago's first black mayor in 1983.
In 1971 Jackson resigned
from the SCLC to found his own organization, People United to Save Humanity
(PUSH). Because of his aggressive, impatient, and commanding personality,
Jackson had long irritated SCLC leadership; and, in the three and a half
years after King's assassination, he had offended others with his public
antics to secure a role as leader of the Civil Rights movement and his
feuds with Ralph D. Abernathy, King's successor as president of the SCLC,
over leadership, policy, and funding.
Through PUSH Jackson continued
to pursue the economic objectives of Operation Breadbasket and expand into
areas of social and political development for blacks in Chicago and across
the nation. The 197Os saw direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts,
and awards through which Jackson protected black homeowners, workers, and
businesses, and honored prominent blacks in the U.S. and abroad. He also
promoted education through
PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program
that focused on keeping inner-city youths in school and providing them
with job placement.
Ran for President
Jackson launched his first campaign
for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. His appeals for social
programs, voting rights, and affirmative action for those neglected by
Reaganomics earned him strong showings in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, New
York, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C. He received 3.5 million votes, enough
to secure a measure of power and respect at the Democratic convention.
Jackson's 1988 campaign for
the Democratic nomination was characterized by more organization and funding
than his previous attempt. With the experience he gained from 1984 and
new resources, Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition surprised the media and
the political pundits. Initially written off as unelectable, Jackson emerged
in the primary/caucus season as a serious contender for the nomination.
He attracted over 6.9 million votes--from urban blacks and Hispanics, poor
rural whites, farmers and factory workers, feminists and homosexuals, and
from white progressives wanting to be part of a historic change. In his
platform he called for homes for the homeless, comparable worth and day
care for working women, a higher minimum wage, a commitment to the family
farm, and an all-out war on drugs. "When we form a great quilt of unity
and common ground" he told delegates at the party convention on July 19,
1988, "we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and
jobs and education and hope to our nation.
After early respectable losses
in Iowa and New Hampshire, he won five southern states on Super Tuesday,
March 8, 1988. On March 12 he won the caucus in his birth state of South
Carolina and three days later finished second in his home state of Illinois.
On March 26, 1988 Jackson stunned Dukakis and the rest of the nation in
the Michigan caucus: Having won that northern industrial state with 55
percent of the vote, Jackson became the Democratic front-runner. Dukakis
later recaptured the lead and the eventual nomination with strong showings
in the second half of the primary season.
Jackson then exercised the
power of his second-place finish to force his consideration as a vice-presidential
running mate and to influence the nature of the Democratic Convention and
the issues included on its platform. Although Jackson was not chosen as
the vice-presidential running mate, he had succeeded in bringing Americans
of all colors to consider a black man for the presidency and vice-presidency.
After the 1988 elections
Jackson moved his home from Chicago to Washington, D.C. There he has campaigned
against homelessness in the nation's capital. He was considered one of
the top contenders to take over as the capital's mayor after Marion Berry
was forced out of office by a drug scandal, but Jackson refused to run.
Instead, he announced in July of 1990 that he would seek election as the
District of Columbia's "statehood senator," a position recently established
by the city government to push Congress to grant statehood to the district.
He was elected in November and sworn into office in January of 1991. Jackson
did not seek re-election after his six-year term as statehood senator ended
in 1996, although he continued to advocate statehood for the nation's capital.
From D.C. to Wall Street
In 1997, Jackson shifted his
focus from the nation's political capital to its financial capital. Seeing
a need for a stronger minority presence on New York's Wall Street, Jackson
founded the Wall Street Project. The organization lobbied companies to
provide more business and employment opportunities for minorities. The
Wall Street Project promoted conscientiousness among African American stockholders
who may not realize the influence that they have as shareholders. As Jackson
explained
to Black Enterprise, "When you go into a meeting as a shareholder,
you now have the right to the floor. Now you can walk into a board meeting
and say 'Mr. Chairman, I'd like to see a list of our Board of Directors...a
list of our employees so we can see where they fit into this company horizontally
and vertically." A stockholder has the power to promote greater employment
and business opportunities for African Americans.
Prior to founding the Wall
Street Project, Jackson's strategy for influencing corporate behavior had
been to organize protests. However, a pivotal event occurred in 1996 which
helped Jackson decide to change his tactics. When charges had surfaced
that Texaco employees had made racist comments, Jackson called New York
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, asking him to join him in picketing Texaco.
McCall told Black Enterprise that he responded, "'Jesse, when you
own a million shares you don't have to picket.'" Because McCall controlled
New York state's investments, he had a great deal of influence with the
companies the state had invested in.
With the Wall Street Project,
Jackson hopes to give minorities the same influence McCall had with Texaco.
Jackson told Black Enterprise. "We empower politically with our
vote. Now we must empower economically with our dollar." But not just anyone
can vote. Only stockholders have a real say in corporate operations. The
purchase of just ten shares of stock, Jackson said, provides a shareholder
with enough leverage to promote business opportunities for African Americans.
As the stock's value increases, so too does the amount of influence a shareholder
has. Jackson told Ebony, "So we have gone from sharecroppers to
shareholders. We say to corporate America: We don't want to be just consumers
and workers, but investors and partners."
Diplomatic Efforts
Throughout his career as a political
and social activist, Jackson has also been a prominent figure in international
diplomacy. In 1979 he traveled to South Africa to speak out against apartheid
and to the Middle East to try to establish relations between Israel and
the Palestinians. In January of 1984 he returned to the Middle East to
negotiate the release of Lieutenant Robert Goodman, a black Navy pilot
who had been shot down and taken hostage in the region. Later that year
he traveled to Cuba to negotiate the release of several political prisoners
held there and to Central America, where he spoke out for regional peace.
In 1990 Jackson was the first American to bring hostages out of Iraq and
Kuwait.
When three U.S. soldiers
serving as part of NATO's forces in Yugoslavia were captured by the Yugoslav
army in March of 1999, Jackson, along with an interfaith delegation, embarked
on a diplomatic mission to negotiate their release. U.S. national security
advisor Sandy Berger warned Jackson, as a private citizen, he did not have
the authority to offer Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic any concessions
on behalf of the United States. Berger also warned that Jackson's safety
could not be guaranteed. Despite these warnings, Jackson, confident that
he could persuade Milsocovic to release the prisoners as a gesture of goodwill,
set off on his diplomatic mission. Jackson's confidence was not unfounded
and when Jackson returned it was with the three soldiers at his side. The
U.S. Senate recognized Jackson's efforts with a commendation.
In May of 1999, Jackson traveled
to war-torn Sierra Leone, where he negotiated a cease-fire agreement between
Tejan Kabbah, the country's president, and rebel Foday Sankoh. Jackson
also negotiated for the release of more than two thousand prisoners of
war. One year later, he returned to Sierra Leone to assist once more in
the country's peace process.
Sought Answers in Suspicious
Hanging Death
When teenager Raynard Johnson
was found hanging by a belt from the pecan tree in front of his home in
Kokomo Mississippi in 2000, suspicions arose immediately that his death
may have been a lynching. Although medical examiners found no evidence
of struggle, Johnson's parents could not believe that their son had committed
suicide. Jackson did not believe the boy's death was a suicide either.
He told Jet, "He had just gotten a computer. He was outgoing. He
was in the Top 5 percentile on his test scores. He was very bright....A
lot of signs point upwards. He was excited about life."
Jackson's Rainbow Coalition/PUSH
launched its own investigation into Johnson's death. Jackson's investigators
identified several people who could have been involved in the teenager's
death and said that someone may have been angered by Johnson's friendship
with two white girls. Authorities, however, said that Johnson's girlfriend
had broken up with him shortly before his death and contended that all
the evidence was consistent with suicide.
In 2000, Jackson, along with
his son, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., published It's About the Money!:
How You Can Get Out of Debt, Build Wealth, and Achieve Your Financial Dreams!
The book is a how-to guide for financial independence and security. Jackson
explained to Mother Jones that economic self-sufficiency is a vital
base for the struggle for freedom. "It costs to send children to college,"
Jackson said. "It costs to have health insurance." Yet, in a culture of
credit card debt, so many Americans do not understand basic economics.
With his book, Jackson hoped to change that.
Never Far From Controversy
Jackson has stirred both admiration
and criticism. His behavior in the hours immediately following the assassination
of Martin Luther King Jr., was a subject of controversy: Jackson claimed
that he had held the dying leader, heard his last words, and had his shirt
stained by King's blood. Other SCLC officers present at the murder have
disputed those claims. As an organizer Jackson often overstepped his authority
in SCLC matters and violated organization policy in a number of his Chicago
campaigns. His economic boycotts were criticized by some businessmen as
extortion and by some reformers for lacking follow-through. The management
of PUSH's people and finances were the subject of close scrutiny and the
freewheeling nature of the organization was regularly called into question.
Jackson offended some Americans by negotiating with the PLO (Palestine
Liberation Organization), Fidel Castro, and the Marxist Sandinista govenrment
of Nicaragua. Jackson's connection with the Black Muslim leader and outspoken
anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, as well as the candidate's reference to New
York City as "Hymietown", outraged Jews.
However, the same driving
ambition to achieve success that is the root of Jackson's weaknesses is
also the source of his strength. He is a tireless worker who is fiercely
committed to his causes, even when bedridden--Jackson suffers from sickle-cell
trait. He is an intelligent, creative, and charismatic leader, and an inspirational
speaker capable of archiving numerous details, then using them to encapsulate
his agenda along with the aspirations of many Americans. He has a flair
for the dramatic that infuses an increasingly tedious political process
with life. And finally, Jackson acts while others talk of action. He has
become the leading spokesman for Americans forgotten by the power brokers
of the political process, especially blacks. In a 1996 speech, Jackson
said, "If you go along and get along, you're a coward. Only by principled
engagement can you be a force for change and hope." Jackson's life has
been one of principled engagement.
PERSONAL
INFORMATION
Full
name, Jesse Louis Jackson; original name, Jesse Louis Burns; born on October
8, 1941, in Greenville, SC; son of Noah Robinson (a cotton grader) and
Helen Burns Jackson (a hairdresser); adopted by stepfather, Charles Henry
Jackson (a postal worker), 1957; married Jacqueline Lavinia Davis, 1964;
children: Santita, Jesse Louis, Jr., Jonathan Luther, Yusef Du Bois, Jacqueline
Lavinia; grandchildren: Jessica and Jonathan.
Education: Attended
University of Illinois, 1959-60; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
College, B.A., 1964; attended Chicago Theological Seminary, 1964-66; M.Div.,
Chicago Theological Seminary, 2000. Politics: Democrat. Religion:
Baptist. Addresses: Office—National Rainbow Coalition
Inc., 30 West Washington, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60602.
AWARDS
Rockefeller
grant, c. mid-1960s, Presidential Award, National Medical Association,
1969; Humanitarian Father of the Year, National Father's Day Committee,
1971; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2000; numerous honorary degrees from
colleges and universities, including Pepperdine University, Oberlin College,
Oral Roberts Univ, Howard, and Georgetown.
CAREER
Field
rep for CORE, 1964; SCLC demonstrator, Selma, 1965; Chicago coordinator
of Operation Breadbasket, 1966-67, national dir, 1967-71; founder, Operation
PUSH, 1971, executive director, 1971-86, founder, PUSH-Excel, PUSH for
Economic Justice; candidate for Democratic presidential candidate, 1983-84,
1987-88; National Rainbow Coalition Inc., Chicago, founder, 1986, national
president, 1986-; senator, District of Columbia, 1991-96; TV host, Voices
of America with Jesse Jackson; Chicago radio host; columnist, Los
Angeles Times Syndicate; founder, the Wall Street Project, 1997; co-author,
It's
About Money, 2000.
Copyright
2005 by Thomson Gale, Inc. (Free resources from the Gale Group)
Overcoming
The Odds
By
Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr
2004
© Tribune Media Services
Over
the next weeks, children go back to schools across the country. Many will
have tough hurdles to overcome – shattered families, mean streets, undersupplied
and overcrowded classrooms. Some will be hungry; some will have untreated
toothaches or uncorrected eye problems. The odds are against them – and
the question is whether they can overcome those odds
We’re in the midst of a large
argument about "No Child Left Behind" and public education, but we’re still
not doing the basics for kids. A savage inequality in funding still scars
our schools. Some children will go to modern schools with small classes,
modern technology and skilled teachers. Some will go to schools that are
dangerous to their health, with out-of-date textbooks, little equipment,
and untested teachers. Some will come from families where education comes
first; others will come from families where survival is a daily struggle,
and a stable home a distant dream. For so many young children, the odds
are stacked against them.
“We shall overcome,” goes
the song, but for many young men and women, it won’t be easy. Those who
start in a hole with shackles on their feet have to work harder just to
catch up. This is hard to do alone. “We”, the song says, “shall overcome,”
not “I” or “he” or “she.”
“We” starts with the family.
Parents must show children how important they think getting an education
is. That requires real commitment. John Johnson, who built the largest
African American publishing company in America, got his start from a mother
who pushed him. When she found that schools for black children ended in
8th grade in Arkansas, she took him to school – in Chicago. She made it
clear that his education came first.
Parents must take responsibility.
Here’s a simple five-point program:
1. Take your child
to school on the first day. That proves that you care.
2. Meet his or her
teachers, and exchange phone numbers with them. Children act differently
when they know their parents and teachers are in touch. Teachers teach
differently when they know that the parents are involved.
3. Pick up your child’s
report card and discuss it. Let your child know that you are supporting
his or her progress.
4. Turn off the television
for three hours every night. Make study time a routine, and
5. Take your child
to church or another place of worship once a week. Teaching moral values
is vital in an economy that markets mostly sex and violence.
Each poor child who makes
it must be a dream-maker, and an odds-breaker. We have some sense of what
it takes. African Americans who succeed in athletics discipline themselves.
They come to practice. They pay attention. There are no TVs on the practice
field. They put in extra time. They play more and practice more so they
can overcome those who grow up with better equipment, better coaching,
and more extensive league play.
Academics are the same. Study
more. Pay attention. Turn off the TV. Work harder than those students who
start with an advantage and go to better schools with better teachers.
It isn’t easy overcoming the odds -- but it is possible.
But responsible parents and
diligent children are not enough. We shall overcome by joining together
to change the odds, to level the playing field. We must organize politically
to demand that every child is given a fair and healthy start. Just the
basics: good nutrition, health care, preschool, small classes in the early
grades, organized after-school activities, skilled teachers, and a guarantee
that if they graduate from high school, college will be made affordable
for them.
Too many children see the
odds and surrender. Too many parents feel intimidated by schools or pay
too little attention to their children’s schooling. But these failures
are magnified by this society’s failure to provide every child with an
equal opportunity to high quality education. We shall overcome not only
by overcoming the odds but by changing the odds.
Today in ghettos and barrios,
in working class suburbs and inner city neighborhoods, scared young children
go to school with the odds stacked against them. Many – from their own
diligence, with family and community support – will make it. They will
become the successes that we celebrate in the future. Many more could make
it if the playing field were even. Our children will go back to school
this fall to be tested on their progress. We will be judged by how we treat
the “least of these.” And when it comes to too many children, they are
doing better on their tests than we are on ours.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
addresses
the Transport Workers
Union of America
Following is the complete
text of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s speech to the Transport Workers
Union of America’s 22nd Constitutional Convention on Tuesday,
September 20, 2005. He was introduced by J.W. Johnson, International Representative
and Director of the TWU Civil and Human Rights Department.
REVEREND JESSE JACKSON (President,
Rainbow Coalition):
Let me hear you scream! (Applause
and cheers)
Let me thank you for such
a kind and generous introduction.
It is a delight to be with
you today as we meet at this very challenging hour in the history of our
country and of your union and of the union movement. Hurricanes are knocking
down the poor. Windfalls are lifting up the rich. I just left New Orleans
and Houston yesterday to get here to be with you today, and then I go back
south tomorrow. So for those victims of that hurricane and the hurricanes
that are on the way, let us bow our heads in prayer.
Dear God, accept our petition
and let the lessons taught not be lost on us. For those who have ears to
hear, listen and learn, and for those who have eyes to see, see. Forgive
us our sins and the foolishness of our ways. Make us better and stronger.
Incline us to turn to each other, not on each other, that we may rise above
the storm and be the better for it.
We know if we have the faith
that you have the power to see us through every situation. Bless this union
as these workers drive and direct the nation. Amen.
In the days when we had inner-tubes
in tires, when we had to change tires we would take the inner-tubes out
and use them for many purposes. But to fill the inner-tube up with air,
you obviously could not see where the air was coming out. You just knew
it kept going down. You would put the inner-tube in the water, and wherever
the bubbles would come up, you knew that's where the hole was.
In some sense, what Katrina
has done is show us where the holes are in the inner-tube, where the bubbles
are. And when the wind blows with great ferociousness, the lion and the
lamb are both hit by the wind. When the wind truly blows at the hurricane
level, it is no respecter of persons where the wind is blowing.
While we are now facing the
impact of Katrina and Rita on the way, what does that have to do with transportation
workers? When we attack the earth, the earth to protect itself fights back.
It has its own sense of survival as a kind of cosmic organism. So with
our greed we unleash these carbons and carcinogens in the air, and we attack
the shield, the ozone layer. And the sun comes in more directly and melts
the glaciers. When they are melted, the water table rises, the water temperature
rises, then there's evaporation, then there's condensation and then wind.
It ain't that complicated. It's called global warming.
So we attack the earth, and
the earth fights back. It makes so much more sense to invest in massive
public transportation than private greed. Amtrak makes more sense than
Hummers to move the American public. (Applause and cheers)
Why a Hummer between Chicago
and St. Louis or Chicago and Milwaukee? Why a Hummer between Greenville,
South Carolina, and Atlanta and/or Charlotte when you could have first
class, safe, energy efficient public transportation. In some sense, you
not only get us there safer and quicker, but you also protect us from a
struggle with the earth, a struggle that we cannot win.
When we heard of 9/11 we
said, "It's bin Laden; it's the Taliban." So we have security guards at
every gate. They'll make you undress in the airport. They have security
guards at the door of every major building. We are going to stop the terrorists.
But adding more security guards will not help you when Katrina and Rita
are coming this way. This is a different kind of fight than fighting political
threats or terrorists.
So the first lesson to be
learned in this struggle, this environmental struggle, which has public
transportation implications, we can no longer say, "Look, I'm a bus driver"
or "I'm a train driver. I can't get into all that environmental stuff because
I'm just driving." Oh, no. You are breathing in this environment. You are
affected by the air you breathe, the water you drink, the impact of hurricanes,
the impact of storms.
So high on our agenda must
be fighting for public transportation that's energy efficient. It certainly
makes more sense than having a road full of Hummers. We are 5 percent of
the world's population and 25 percent of its polluters. So I agree. Turn
back the Hummers. Every time I see a debate about should we have Amtrak
or not, we should have Amtrak coast to coast. We should be connected by
train, connected by rail. (Applause) Put America back to work.
Maybe one of the biggest
mistakes made in the last century, Mr. President, was that we had the train
system before there were airplanes, and those who owned the trains only
saw ways of making more luxurious trains and more private rail cars for
the rich. They didn't see transportation; they just saw trains. In reality,
those who own the train companies really should have owned the airlines.
But the big issue is our national interest and security-- making steel,
laying the beds, fast and energy efficient transportation.
The first attack in New Orleans
in the Gulf Coast was an environmental reaction or feedback called global
warming. The second issue to be dealt with was that we had advanced warning
but no preparation. We put a man in charge of federal emergencies who was
an Arabian horse trader. (Applause) It took some effort to be that unqualified.
(Laughter)
Bush riding bicycles and
dodging Cindy Sheehan in his front yard, and the storm kept coming. So
unlike 9/11 where there was no advance warning-- to our knowledge-- or
the tsunami, we had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We had
warning. When the storm hit, and it was not just New Orleans, it was not
just Pascagoula or Mobile, it was the Gulf Coast. It was a federal hit,
a hit that affected our southeast region.
I got there on Tuesday. There
was no Mississippi plan, there was no Louisiana plan or Alabama plan. There
was no sense of a federal emergency that was coming at our coast. There
was no federal coordination. So we simply watched as mayors and governors
stumbled over each other.
When the storm hit New Orleans,
Mr. Bush never got down there. He never went to New Orleans until after
it was over. Mr. Brown never went to Ground Zero. The Red Cross never went
to Ground Zero. They said it was too dangerous to go down there. But they
went to Iraq. (Applause and cheers)
That does not make sense
to me. The media says, "Well, these are refugees." No, no, no. These are
citizens-- not refugees but citizens, American citizens. (Applause and
cheers) We are not refugees. We are citizens. (Applause)
We protect refugees because
we care. The sign on the Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free." These are refugees
we're reaching out to who are escaping some form of political persecution
or famine or starvation. We receive refugees and then they become citizens.
Refugees exist on privilege. Citizen exist on rights. We have a right to
be protected. We are lucky. We are Americans. (Applause and cheers)
There was no preparedness
for our infrastructure because of misplaced priorities. The reason why
I challenge us to work together across lines of race and region, religion
and gender, to unlearn lessons of racial intolerance, unlearn these race
games we've been taught to play, and learn to live together as brothers
and sisters and not die apart as fools, is because we are bound together.
When they close the plants
and take your jobs to a cheap labor market, when they close the plants
they cut the lights out. When the lights go out, you can't use color for
a crutch. We all look amazingly similar in the dark. So let's turn the
lights on! (Applause and cheers and whistles) Turn the lights on and let
the light shine in.
There was no preparedness.
So the reality is that Mississippi got hit harder than New Orleans. If
New Orleans had been hit frontally by a Category 5, then the whole Superdome
would have been under water, nine feet below sea level. So we were looking
for a week at people on top of rooftops, starving and begging for bread
and water. Whether you call it race, class or poverty, the whole world
was watching.
I remember in 1968 at the
Democratic Convention in Chicago, the police began to beat the demonstrators
who were protesting the war. And at some point the police were hitting
them across the head and they started to chant, "The whole world is watching!
The whole world is watching!" And the whole world was watching who got
left in that hole.
Somehow we dropped bread
and water on Indonesia after the tsunami in two days. After we were hit
on 9/11, Mr. Bush went to Ground Zero, held arms with police and firemen
in New York. But in two days he never quite got to New Orleans. And the
whole world was watching.
Was it incompetence? Some
of that. Ineptness? Some of that. Race, class? Probably some of that. None
of that is acceptable. We all deserve to be protected when under attack.
(Applause)
So there was no mass plan
for rescue. I went in on Tuesday with ten buses. FEMA started the buses
rolling and said that it was too dangerous to go in. We went in. Without
bodyguards we went in. It seemed to me that if there were some shots being
fired, you send the National Guard in. But when they're being fired upon,
you stop the shooters; you don't stop the buses and leave folks to die
and parch in the sun. (Applause) Overreaction.
We went in and got the students,
40 or 50 of them from Xavier, and we brought them out. The most painful
part about it was that people had been up on the highway for two days,
three days at that time, and when they saw the buses coming, they saw me
coming, they had a sense of joy and I was glad to see them. But then we
didn't have enough room for them. We began to load the bus with students
and they formed a human chain around the bus and said, "You can't leave
us." That's when the tears began to flow. We had to leave them on the promise
that we would come back the next day. And we did. But how painful it was
to leave them in the dark for a fourth day.
We came back the next day
and 12,000 cars were on I-10 with 10,000 people. I saw a baby dying in
its mother's arms. Folks in wheelchairs keeled over dead. Chavez from Venezuela,
our trading partner with whom we have diplomatic relations, offered us
two mobile hospital units, 2 electric generators, 18 water purifiers, 20
tons of water and 50 tons of food, and we turned it away. I know because
I put the letter in the Governor's hands.
There were people dying on
the highway. Across the highway were 500 buses empty. They would not pick
them up. Why? Was it the bus driver's fault? No. The bus drivers came to
pick them up but had no place to take them. They could not ride around
with 50 people on a bus angry, upset and sick, with no place to take them.
So now we're caught with rescue but no plan for relief, even in an emergency.
Last Monday I went to Memphis,
Tennessee where 40 truck drivers revolted. They'd been there for a week
with semi tractors full of ice, water and food, but no place to drop it.
They'd been sitting there for a week making $1,000 a day and $2,000 a week
on gas alone, angry because there was no plan for massive relief, no plan
for massive rescue, no plan for relocation.
Wouldn't you think that living
in the lowlands of Louisiana and you're a Louisiana taxpaying citizen,
when warnings come in you could go north within your own state for rescue?
Would not the first resort of southern Louisiana be to go to north Louisiana?
Wouldn't the first option be for citizens from the south to go north in
their own state? Why didn't they go north? Why couldn't they use unused
military bases? England Air Force Base is 3,000 acres! (Applause)
Electricity, water, schools,
commissaries, health facilities. Belle Chasse in New Orleans, other military
bases, state parks, federal lands, why couldn't they go to safety in their
own state? There was no plan to receive their own. Even today, 150,000
are living in rescue centers today. Babies sleeping on floors of kitchens.
Today 150,000. With 1,000 children misplaced even now.
No plan for massive rescue.
And it could have been your state. No plan for massive relief, no plan
for relocation. So now there are more in Texas than there are in Louisiana.
What's the politics of that? No plan for massive relocation or reunification.
As I was pulling people out,
they said, "But Reverend, I'm here but my wife is there, my baby's there."
I said, "Show me." I said,
"Take the whole family." They took them out men here, women here. They
took them out dividing families. No mothers cannot find fathers. Children
cannot find parents. No planning for massive rescue, relief, relocation
or family reunification.
But we've got the plan now.
We've put on our Bush face now and we've got a plan. We've got a plan for
reconstruction. "There will be a new New Orleans. We'll hear jazz again.
We'll eat gumbo again. We'll do the second line one more time. I'm here
now with a plan."
But watch this, y'all. Watch
this, union. Watch this. We have a $200 billion bailout plan for the Gulf
Coast. $200 billion. Whenever Bush sticks his hand out, there's always
something up his sleeve. (Laughter and applause)
What was missed in the big
news coverage, in the big press conference in New Orleans-- with the Andrew
Jackson Building in the background, by the way-- "We must suspend Davis-Bacon."
Some people think that's Davis eating bacon, but that ain't what it is,
you understand? That really ain't about grits and bacon. That's the workers'
Bacon. To rebuild New Orleans, to rebuild the Coast, we must suspend prevailing
wages, a deal covering right-to-work states, the red states.
Their very first act, we're
going to give you money but we won't give you wages, a federal bill on
states rights terms. If we had prevailing wages, it would mean they'd have
to lift minimum wages across the whole red-state region. So we're going
to have a Gulf State bill, but we're going to suspend prevailing wages.
Now, we know that those who
could get out did get out. Those who could not get out were left behind,
Bush says, because of "intractable problems" of race and class and poverty.
And we must get over that. Of course, that's true. But his very first act
to condemn them to more poverty.
In a state where they've
already got a minimum wage that's below poverty-- a subminimum wage now
is the law, below poverty-- his very first act was to sign an executive
order to suspend prevailing wages. You're coming back to $6 an hour. You
still can't afford a car. You can't get out of the next flood. (Applause)
I was there yesterday while
people from New Orleans are now in 41 states around the country looking
for a new home, looking for survival. Some of the Gulf State workers trying
to get back home, they were locked out. While Halliburton and Bechtel brings
in immigrant workers to do the job for less than $6 an hour. Using immigrant
labor in order to cut workers who are already at subminimum wages.
Most people who are poor
are not on welfare. Fifty million Americans have no health insurance. Most
poor folks work every day. They catch the early bus. (Applause) They clean
up other people's houses. They raise their children and cut their grass.
They work every day. Most poor folks are not on welfare; they work every
day. And when they get to work, they still don't have health insurance.
But they work every day.
Most of them are not black; they are white, they are female and they are
young. But whether white, black or brown, we are all God's children. And
when they work, get off that bus and go to the hospital as orderlies and
aides to nurses, when you're sick they wipe your body down, they cool your
scorching fever, they clean your diseased sheets, they take your temperature,
they mop the floors. They're not old enough to be called misters or misses.
Yet when they get sick, they cannot afford to lie in the bed they make
up every day.
It is time for a change.
We all need health insurance. Every American needs health insurance. (Applause)
Every American. Every American needs health insurance. (Applause and cheers)
Every American deserves health insurance.
The very first act-- here's
Mr. President in New Orleans, and the very first act was to suspend Davis-Bacon,
a direct attack on labor. We should be in the south now fighting for the
right to organize, not supporting right-to-work laws.
So why must black and white
find common ground? Some people get sidetracked arguing about same sex
and skin color supremacy. Why must we get beyond these diversions?
Watch this. When slavery
was over-- there could not be organized labor in slavery times because
organized labor couldn't compete with slave labor. Organized labor and
slave labor couldn't coexist. So in many ways, when slavery ended, that's
when organized labor began. Because slave labor and organized labor couldn't
coexist. So we began to organize labor unions to protect the workers' interests
and have collective bargaining, collective strength.
The south cut a deal. And
it lasted until this day. "We're sorry. We're coming back into the union.
We lost the war. We really didn't lose, we just stopped fighting. We're
coming back in. But on the condition that the federal government"-- watch
this-- "the federal government will build roads, bridges, sewers, levies,
dams, you will build the infrastructure, but we'll control labor." That
was the deal.
"So while you will have federal
investment in roads, bridges and dams and levies, we will maintain right-to-work
laws. We'll segregate black from white workers. We'll segregate men from
women workers. That was the deal they cut. Separate black from white, separate
men from women. And you're going to have cheap labor down here. Come on
down here, y'all. Come on down here. We control labor." That's the deal
we cut.
And they cut the same deal
last Friday. "We're going to bring in $200 billion, but we must suspend
Davis-Bacon, we must reinforce right-to-work laws, we must undercut organized
labor." That was the first deal cut. The next deal cut was, "Because we're
in a hurry, we'll have time for local businesses."
You would think that displaced
victims would have first priority on the right to return home. That victims
would have the first right of job training, jobs and contracts. Am I right
about that? (Applause)
Say it with me:
... The delegates joined
in and repeated in unison ...
Displaced
Victims
Should have
The first right
To return home.
The victims
Should have the first right
On job training,
Jobs,
And contracts.
The Victims
Should have the first right
To return home,
Job training,
Jobs,
And contracts.
They suspended that law,
too. So Halliburton and Bechtel got five $100 million no-bid contracts
to clean up what? Dirt and limbs. So on one extreme-- are y'all with me
so far? On one extreme you undercut labor, you create cheaper labor, those
who come back still cannot survive again; and on the other hand you take
away all the laws. You would think that Gulf States businesses would be
thriving.
But in comes FEMA with Bechtel
and Fleur, the same people who cleaned up Iraq with the biggest multimillion
dollar cost overrun and we can't find the money? That same crowd? (Laughter)
To clean up a yard of debris on a truck is $26 a yard for Halliburton,
but for local people it's $6 a yard on a truck.
So here you have all this
fundraising and "We love the victims, bring me one home, bring victims
to our house as a little trophy from New Orleans. We've got some new trophies,
got two or three starving Negroes from New Orleans." The hell with that,
y'all. We need jobs and wages and health care and contracts.
... The delegates arose and
applauded ...
When you put an inner-tube
in the water, what do you find? Where the bubbles are. Some say, "Where
are we gonna find the money?" Well, if you give a permanent tax cut to
the top ten percent, you subsidize the wealthy, and you invest $5 billion
a month in Iraq-- no weapons of mass destruction, no Al Qaeda connection,
no imminent threat-- we are losing lives, money and honor. So now we've
got to protect Baghdad, but we can't protect New Orleans. (Applause)
We have now seen the holes
in the inner-tube. It's time for a new tire, a new change and a new President.
It's time for a change. (Applause and cheers and whistles)
It's time for a change. The
beauty of America is protecting the common good. We didn't say, "Give me
your rich, your elite, your aristocrats." We said, "Give me your poor,
your tired, your huddled masses." The common defense. We need public education
for all, public transportation for all. Public health care for all. We
must fight for the common good and rise above the foolishness of our own
separation and fears.
A white coal miner dies in
Appalachia every six hours from black lung disease. But whether you are
in Appalachia, Alabama, we are all still God's children. We are all still
Americans. A sense of the common good, a sense of sacrifice.
Our highest form of praise
is helping somebody besides ourselves. The genius of the "Good Samaritan"
parable is: A man was walking down the street tending to his business.
And two thieves jumped out from behind the bushes and robbed him. The fact
is, they could have removed that curb and those bushes so other folks wouldn't
get robbed. But Jesus said that the man was walking down the street, two
thieves jumped him and robbed him and beat him. How we measure character,
the beaten man is no hero. He's just a victim. I want us to measure character
by how you treat a beaten man-- not by your race, not by your sex, not
by your religion. How you treat the least of these is a measure of your
character. That's who you are.
You don't know who you are
because you're white or black. You didn't make that decision. You can't
brag about something you had nothing to do with. (Applause) You did not
choose your race or gender, so that has no value in character measurement.
It's about loyalty and trust and duty, values that you choose because of
your character-- or lack of it.
Watch this. Jesus said: One
man saw him lying there bleeding. And this guy looked up bleeding and saw
a pastor, a minister, a man of God of his own religion. He felt relief
because he knew there would be help. The pastor, the Bible says, went to
the other side of the street and kept walking. One of these prodigies of
the gospel, slick preachers, Bible in one hand and prayer book in the other,
kept walking.
Jesus asked him, "Is that
your neighbor? I mean, he's your preacher, but is that your neighbor when
you're in trouble?"
Another man came walking
down the street, somebody from his own ethnic group, his own race. He knew
he had help them because his ethnic bubble was coming down the street.
(Laughter)
The Bible says he went to
the other side and kept on walking.
Another man, the Samaritan,
came walking down the street. A man from another country, another race,
another religion, spoke another language, didn't even have a green card.
(Laughter) A Samaritan. He went beyond color, beyond culture, and up to
character. And he picked him up. He put him on his own horse and said,
"Now let's go and get well."
His own pastor, his own religious
order neglected him. His own ethnic kin neglected him. And then here was
a Samaritan beyond color and culture with something called "character."
It makes us strong. It makes us able to survive strikes, able to organize
and BUILD, BUILD, BUILD! (Applause)
Today what's missing in New
Orleans and Baton Rouge labor movement is-- and Bush came with us last
Friday and attacked Davis-Bacon, attacked prevailing wages, attacked workers'
rights to organize. And so far we ain't done nothin' about it.
Our silence is betrayal!
We should be marching in Baton Rouge today. We should be marching and demanding,
"How can you be parading and profiling in Port Arthur and Mississippi and
Alabama and Louisiana, and then fight to condemn workers to poverty wages?"
There's a labor movement in town, and we ain't gonna take it! There is
a labor movement in town! (Applause)
We are not going to take
prevailing wages being cut. We are not going to accept right-to-work. We
want the right to organize. There's a labor movement in town. (Applause
and cheers and whistles)
Lastly, why can't we afford
public transportation? Why can't we afford Amtrak, buses? Why can't we
afford to subsidize public education? I was in Venezuela two weeks ago,
and gas was 15 cents a gallon. Fifteen cents a gallon. Because they subsidize
public education, public transportation, and health care. We can't afford
that because we subsidize the top five percent. We subsidize a war in Iraq.
(Applause) So when we get through giving give-backs to the wealthy and
fighting a war of choice, we don't have any money left because our priorities
are off.
We need public education.
We don't need a war in Iraq; we need public education. We need public transportation.
We need public health care. We need new priorities. (Applause)
Mr. President, I am not pleased
with the Democrats, and I am not scared of Republicans. It's time to fight
back in an independent kind of way. (Applause and cheers) It's time to
fight back. We need a labor political movement. We need a Workers' Party.
We must fight for workers' rights,
health care,
jobs,
justice,
education,
housing.
This land is our land. (Applause)
I am not pleased with the Democrats, and I ain't scared of the Republicans.
I've come to fight today. Can I get a witness? Let me hear you scream.
... The delegates arose and
shouted and applauded and whistled ...
There are Republicans who
want right-to-work laws. There are Democrats who are not fighting against
them. Then there's us. (Applause) Us needs our own political movement to
protect us's interests.
Character-- and I will close
on this, character, because it's what will make you strong. I was out in
L.A. where there was a transportation strike three years ago. For 30 days,
the whole city was stopped. 500,000 people couldn't move. Public transportation
stopped and doctors couldn't leave the homes because the nannies couldn't
get to work. (Applause) There was nobody to take care of their children.
Judges couldn't get to work. When you stop, the town stops. When you roll,
the town rolls. You've got power. (Applause and cheers) When you roll,
the nation rolls. (Applause) When you roll, everybody rolls.
All the glitz and lights
and Emi's and Jimmy's and all that stuff in L.A., when the drivers stop
the town stops. You've got power. You're the ones who make the cookie crumble.
You are the point.
That's what we found out
after 30 days and got that matter resolved. We came down to having the
capacity to survive the 30 days. We missed a couple paychecks. We had to
have the courage to fight. Had to have the all-out power to achieve victory.
And that's what they did.
Some years ago in L.A., there
was Rodney King, a black motorist driving down the highway. Four racist
white policemen tried to beat him to death. But don't assume all white
are racists on that basis. That's not a fair conclusion. Because while
he was there getting beaten, crying out-- I mean, you could hear the thumps--
a white photographer named George Halliday, when he heard it he looked
out the window and saw the lights, he saw the beating taking place. And
he could have said, "It's not my business." He could have said, "That Negro
shouldn't be in my neighborhood. They caught him doing something." He could
have said, "All them police couldn't be wrong."
But some mother's or father's
lesson, some minister's sermon said to the white photographer, "It's not
right. They shouldn't beat that man. He's alone and they're beating him
and laughing." George Halliday was a hero; Rodney King was the victim.
Rodney King was not a hero; he was a victim. The hero was a white photographer
who went beyond color and culture to something called character.
A few days later, when those
four policemen were set free and blacks and browns went berserk with anger
and pain, there was a rebellion in Watts. A white truck driver named Reginald
Denny got lost. He ended up in Watts, so he knew he was lost. (Laughter)
Four young blacks snatched
him out of the truck and began to beat him. It was live on television on
CNN. Four young blacks who did not know each other, but had a sense of
values, a sense of what was right. Not black and white, but wrong and right.
They left-- now they didn't even know each other-- and they snatched him
away from them. They rushed him to the hospital where one of the doctors
performed surgery and saved his life. Beyond color and culture to something
called character, something called courage.
Workers, it is time to fight
back. They're dealing down your wages. It's time to fight back. You want
Amtrak? It's time to fight back. The greedy are attacking our earth, and
it's time to fight back. First class jails and second class schools? It's
time to fight back. They want to invest in our levies and people are drowning?
It's time to fight back.
We've come too far. We've
marched too much. We've died too young. This land is our land. Don't let
them take it. It's time to fight back.
Keep hope alive.
... The delegates arose and
extended a tremendous ovation as Reverend Jesse Jackson extended personal
greetings to TWU's officers on stage ...
REVEREND JACKSON: Is Chicago
in the house? I had to do that because all politics is local, you know,
and that's my crowd. (Laughter)
I do want to say that as
we rush back to New Orleans and Baton Rouge and Mississippi, Brother O'Brien,
we really are going to be leaning on you very heavily. I hope that before
you leave you do a resolution publicly challenging the implications of
Bush suspending Davis-Bacon on the one hand, and suspending civil rights
laws giving no-bid contracts to Bechtel and Halliburton on the other, because
that is a direct attack.
... Shouts as a delegate
faints among the crowd ...
REVEREND JACKSON: Somebody
is sick. Call 911.
Let us pray. Let us pray.
Don't panic. Let's pray. Sshhh. Join hands and let us pray. Prayer matters.
Say "prayer matters".
... Cries of "Amen" ...
Prayer matters.
Be with us today with your
healing hands. With your healing hand, touch us. Give us the strength.
We know we have faith that You have the power to see us through. There
is nothing too hard for You. We fall down sometimes but get back up again,
and again, and again. You are our God and we are Your people, so victory
is assured. Amen.
Give the person enough room
so we will not suffocate him please.
God bless you. (Applause)
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
LITTLE: Would the delegates return to their seats please?
The Convention will recess
until after lunch. Please exit the hall as soon as possible.
...The Convention recessed
at 11:37 a.m. ...
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