He Spoke for a Generation and More
Dear Leading Ladies,
The Reverend Jesse Jackson is dead. An imperfect man, as his detractors were always quick to point out, he was also a great man who fought and won many battles for civil rights and social justice during his 84 years. Born and raised in poverty in South Carolina, he graduated from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically Black institution of higher learning (HBCU), with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. He then received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to study at the Chicago Theological Seminary, founded in 1855 and initially directed by abolitionist Stephen Peet. The multi-denominational school, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, is described on its website as a “leader in theological study, social Justice, and societal transformation.” Jackson, later ordained as a Baptist minister, left his studies just shy of receiving his Master’s degree, to join Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. Jackson was only 26 when King was assassinated in 1968, but he had already developed the organizing and oratory skills to assume a leadership role in the movement and beyond.
Jesse Jackson advised presidents for many decades on many issues. He is credited with founding Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), an effort to encourage economic boycotts against discriminatory corporations, and the Rainbow Coalition, which aimed to bring together diverse groups to fight for social justice. The two entities eventually merged. He was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, an effort to increase economic opportunities for Black Americans. Jackson was also pivotal in accomplishing the release of hostages in countries such as Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria. For his accomplishments, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton.
Photo credit: twincities.com
When he spoke at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, he was the first male Black candidate from a major party, though not the first Black candidate to run for the presidency. (Google George Edwin Taylor, who ran in 1904 for the National Negro Liberty Party and Shirley Chisholm, who campaigned in 1972 for the Democratic nomination.) Yet his speech made history for the attention it received. Delivered the night before Michael Dukakis was given the nomination, the speech showed the world the possibilities that were realized by Barack Obama just 20 years later. Jackson’s speech set the stage not just for president Obama, but also for the many men and women of color serving in positions of power in our country today.
His words now seem prescient but also a reminder that change and progress require hard work, sacrifice, and hope. In these times of blatant and increased racism, often from the highest sources of power, Jackson’s words deserve our attention. Below are some excerpts from his 1988 speech. You can read the speech in its entirety here or watch it here.
All of us — all of us who are here think that we are seated. But we're really standing on someone's shoulders. Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Rosa Parks.The mother of the civil rights movement. [Mrs. Rosa Parks was brought to the podium.]
My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won in my lifetime, by the blood and the sweat of the innocent.
Many were lost in the struggle for the right to vote: Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young student, gave his life; Viola Liuzzo, a White mother from Detroit, called nigger lover, had her brains blown out at point blank range; [Michael] Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and [James] Chaney — two Jews and a Black — found in a common grave, bodies riddled with bullets in Mississippi; the four darling little girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. They died that we might have a right to live.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lies only a few miles from us tonight. Tonight he must feel good as he looks down upon us. We sit here together, a rainbow, a coalition - the sons and daughters of slavemasters and the sons and daughters of slaves, sitting together around a common table, to decide the direction of our party and our country. His heart would be full tonight.
As a testament to the struggles of those who have gone before; as a legacy for those who will come after; as a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and mothers; as an assurance that their prayers are being answered, their work has not been in vain, and hope is eternal; tomorrow night my name will go into nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.
We meet tonight at the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power; or suffer division and impotence?
Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival — not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you're a hawk or a dove, you're just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.
Common ground! Easier said than done. Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge. This campaign has shown that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits. Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground.
We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice. We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets. Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan. Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick. We are a better nation than that. We must do better.
We, the people, can win!
We stand at the end of a long dark night of reaction. We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction. For almost eight years we've been led by those who view social good coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.
We believe in a government that's a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth. We believe in government with the consent of the government with the consent of the governed, "of, for and by the people." We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.
Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day. What's the moral challenge of our day? We have public accommodations. We have the right to vote.
What's the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence. Plant closings without notice-- economic violence. Even the greedy do not profit long from greed-- economic violence.
Most poor people are not lazy. They are not black. They are not brown. They are mostly White and female and young. But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby's belly turned inside out is the same color-- color it pain, color it hurt, color it agony.
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can't read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can't find a job that matches the address. They work hard every day. I know, I live amongst them. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people's children. They work every day.
They clean the streets. They work everyday. They drive dangerous cabs. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract. They work everyday. (Applause)
No, no, they're not lazy. Someone must defend them because it's right and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right (Applause) We are a better Nation than that! (Applause)
We need a real war on drugs. You can't "just say no." It's deeper than that. You can't just get a palm reader or an astrologer. It's more profound than that.
You cannot fight a war on drugs unless until you're going to challenge the bankers and the gun sellers and those who grow them. Don't just focus on the children, let's stop drugs at the level of supply and demand. We must end the scourge on the American Culture!
Leadership. What difference will we make? Leadership. We cannot just go along to get along. We must do more than change Presidents. We must change direction.
Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day.
If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political. It may be political and never be right. Fanny Lou Hamer didn't have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted the life of every delegate who voted to lock her out. Rosa Parks did not have the most votes, but she was morally right. Dr. King didn't have the most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right. If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place.
And then for our children. Young America, hold your head high now. We can win. We must not lose to the drugs, and violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and despair. We can win. Wherever you are tonight, now I challenge you to hope and to dream. Don't submerge your dreams. Exercise above all else, even on drugs, dream of the day you are drug free. Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be up on your feet again.
You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don't stop with the way things are. Dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming, young America. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age, and unwinnable.
Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living. Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering. Dream on the high road with sound values.
And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November and then beyond, America must never surrender to a high moral challenge.
Do not surrender to drugs. The best drug policy is a "no first use." Don't surrender with needles and cynicism. Let's have "no first use" on the one hand, or clinics on the other. Never surrender, young America. Go forward.
America must never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We must never surrender. We must go forward.
We must never surrender to inequality. Women cannot compromise ERA or comparable worth. Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to what a man makes. Women cannot buy meat cheaper. Women cannot buy bread cheaper. Women cannot buy milk cheaper. Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do. It's right and it's fair.
In your wheelchairs. I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs. I've stayed with you. I've reached out to you across our Nation. Don't you give up. I know it's tough sometimes. People look down on you. It took you a little more effort to get here tonight. And no one should look down on you, but sometimes mean people do. The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up.
I understand. I know abandonment, and people being mean to you, and saying you're nothing and nobody and can never be anything.
Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight in the projects, on the corners, I understand. Call you outcast, low down, you can't make it, you're nothing, you're from nobody, subclass, underclass; when you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination.
I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me. And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it.
Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don't you surrender. Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.
You must not surrender. You may or may not get there but just know that you're qualified. And you hold on, and hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better.
Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive!
Wow! Could that man talk! And did he have truths to impart.
Current young activist David Hogg might well call Jackson the kind of “leader we deserve.”
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team