Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 20 noveMber 2017

Jesse Jackson’s decades in public eye shaped by many roles

By SHARON COHEN and to the Flint River from De- NEGOTIATOR
COREY WILLIAMS troit’s system. The river wa- For Jackson, the world has
Associated Press ter was not properly treat- been his stage. In his role
CHICAGO (AP) — For more ed, causing lead to leach as a self-styled diplomat,
than 50 years, the Rev. Jes- from aging pipes into Flint he’s met with leaders such
se Jackson has been in the homes. Tests later showed as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and
public eye as an activist, a high lead levels in some Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, bro-
two-time presidential can- children. kered the release of Ameri-
didate and a guiding force Jackson said there should can prisoners and lobbied
in the modern civil rights be “tape around the city, for causes such as wiping
movement. because Flint is a crime out apartheid.
Jackson, 76, disclosed on scene.” His first success came in
Friday that he’s been treat- CANDIDATE 1984 when Jackson, then
ed for Parkinson’s disease In 1984, Jackson entered running for president, nego-
for the past two years, leav- the presidential arena as tiated the release from Syr-
ing unclear what role he will an improbable candidate ia of Navy Lt. Robert Good-
play in the national conver- for the Democratic nomi- man, who was shot down
sation going forward. nation, a black civil rights over Lebanon. That same
The onetime protégé of activist who thundered year, Jackson visited Cas-
the Rev. Martin Luther King In this Tuesday, Aug. 27, 1996 file photo, Rev. Jesse Jackson waits against racial injustice and tro, who then freed dozens
while his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., introduces him to delegates at
Jr. has taken on numerous the United Center in Chicago during the Democratic National poverty, never sugarcoat- of American and Cuban
roles that have shaped his Convention. ing his words as he ad- prisoners from Cuban jails.
life. Here are some of them: Associated Press dressed an overwhelmingly In 1990, Jackson helped
CIVIL RIGHTS PIONEER PUSH Coalition, has con- demonstrations Jackson white electorate. secure the release from
Jackson’s passion for civil tinued to emphasize the has participated in over Jackson, who’d never run Iraq of hundreds of foreign
rights was deep in his DNA power of the vote in recent the decades — marching for public office, mobi- women and children being
from his earliest days. appearances. against apartheid; flashing lized surprisingly large sup- detailed as human shields
He was arrested in 1960 in ACTIVIST the peace sign at an anti- port with the passion of to ward off an American
his native South Carolina In 2014, Jackson quietly and Iraq war rally in London; his words, an experienced military attack after Iraq’s
when he and others en- without fanfare walked up joining striking Red Cross, minister who made the invasion of Kuwait.
tered a segregated public to a memorial on a street grocery and airline work- campaign trail itself his pul- Critics sometimes accused
library. in Ferguson, Missouri, where ers on picket lines in cities pit. He called his base a Jackson of showboating
Five years later, Jackson black 18-year-old Michael across the nation; getting “rainbow coalition” as he and meddling in foreign
joined King in the Selma Brown was shot to death by arrested for protesting at a won the backing of pro- policy, but his diplomatic
to Montgomery, Ala- a white city police officer. plant where workers’ jobs gressives, blacks, Hispan- forays also won him praise.
bama, marches. His world He was greeted warmly by were being relocated to ics, blue-collar workers and After Goodman’s release,
changed with terrible sud- people living nearby and China. struggling farmers. Reagan, in a White House
denness on the night of those viewing the memo- Like King and other civil Taking aim at poverty and ceremony, called Jack-
April 4, 1968, when King rial. rights leaders, Jackson has racism, Jackson called for son’s trip to Syria “a person-
died of an assassin’s bul- Jackson also joined pro- maintained the belief that increased federal funding al mission of mercy” worthy
lets on a balcony of the testers as they marched change can be achieved for social programs, cutting of admiration.
Lorraine Motel in Memphis. through the streets of the through nonviolence. the defense budget and And at a ceremony in Chi-
Jackson was with him. St. Louis suburb, demand- He led a protest last year reversing President Ronald cago to mark the 30th an-
As the towering leader at ing justice on Brown’s be- in Flint, Michigan, where Reagan-era tax cuts. He niversary of Goodman’s re-
the center of the civil rights half and a stop to unfair a lead-tainted water crisis also called for creation of lease, Jackson summed up
movement, King had been treatment of blacks by the started when a state-ap- a Palestinian state — some- his negotiating skills with a
a dominant presence in the Ferguson officers. pointed manager in 2014 thing that chilled his rela- simple declaration:
life of the young activist, still It was one of countless switched the city’s service tionship with some Jewish “Talking matters. No talking
in his 20s. In the years that voters. never works.”
followed, Jackson would Despite the skepticism that FAMILY MAN
come into his own, becom- greeted his bid, Jackson Jackson’s personal life has
ing a familiar public face won more than 3 million had its share of joy and
and powerful orator, fight- votes. Though he came in pain. He met his wife, Jac-
ing for voting rights, equal a distant third, Jackson was queline, at North Carolina
job and business opportuni- credited with enrolling as Agricultural & Technical
ties for African-Americans many as 2 million Demo- College as the civil rights
and an end to other racial cratic voters that some say movement began gaining
injustices. helped the party recapture momentum.
“In many ways, history is the Senate in 1986. They soon were married
marked as ‘before’ and Four years later, Jackson and had five children —
‘after’ Rosa Parks,” Jack- made another bid for the three sons and two daugh-
son said after the death of White House, this time more ters. Unlike her husband,
the woman whose refusal experienced and better Jacqueline Jackson has
to give up her seat on a funded. largely avoided the spot-
bus helped invigorate the His message remained the light. But in 2001, the glare
civil rights movement. “She same. America had much from her husband’s affair
sat down in order that we work to do to overturn the with a former aide shone
all might stand up, and the In this April 3, 1968 file photo, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands racial discrimination, pov- on Jacqueline Jackson.
walls of segregation came with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine erty and injustice that had Her husband admitted
down.” Motel in Memphis, Tenn., a day before he was assassinated at long haunted it.In that that January to fathering
approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams,
Jackson, leader of the Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. campaign, he won nearly a daughter with the former
Chicago-based Rainbow/ Associated Press 7 million votes. aide.q