News Topic - Jesse Jackson
Articles 1 - 10 of most recent articles
Race was always an issue in Helms' campaigns
From the beginning, Jesse Helms' career was intertwined with race.His first political involvement was in North Carolina's 1950 U.S. Senate contest. The conservative candidate he backed won after a doctored photo showed his opponent's wife dancing with black soldiers.As a broadcaster in the 1960s, he was an ardent critic of civil rights.When the FBI arrested four white Alabama men in the 1965 death of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, he asked, “The larger question, and America may as well face it, is why and how did the rage of these men become so great as to prompt them to commit such an outrage. Can it honestly be said there was no deliberate provocation of violence in Alabama?”In the Senate, where he long opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, he once told colleagues, “We're free, white and 21, as we say in North Carolina.” “Jesse Helms was powerful and famous, but he missed an opportunity to be great because he chose the wrong side of history,” Jesse Jackson told the Observer Friday. “The new North Carolina is now celebrated. He fought against it.”When Helms ran against former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, an African American, he ran an ad that showed white hands crumpling a rejection letter as a narrator said the job went to a minority. Critics say Helms used such ads to drive a wedge between white and black voters.“Jesse Helms definitely used a lot of what I call wedge issues to his advantage politically,” Gantt said Friday. “He was a master at using fear … whether it was communism or gay and lesbian groups or African Americans. He won elections that way and never lost.”Helms supporters call the hands ad a legitimate way to talk about proposed affirmative action legislation.“That bill was an affirmative action quota bill,” said John Dodd, who heads the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate. “Now is TV very graphic? Is TV tough? Senator Helms didn't like that ad. He told me he didn't like it. He said it was too hard.”Kerry Haynie, a Duke University political scientist, gives Helms credit for building the conservative movement and the N.C. Republican Party.“But at the same time, he built that Republican Party by taking advantage of and manipulating the issue of race,” he said. “Senator Helms was one of the most skillful politicians of his generation.”Haynie said that while other Southern conservatives, including former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, eventually courted African Americans, Helms never repudiated his former stands. “Senator Helms never, to my knowledge, relented or apologized for the hurt that he caused or the divisiveness that he injected into the politics of this state or national politics,” he said. During a 2005 interview, The Charlotte Observer asked Helms how he would respond to such critics.“The truth is the truth, whether people choose to accept it or not” he said. “Let me be very clear. From my earliest days, I was taught to respect all people. It is just that simple.“I never took the time to argue with the nonsense claims that I was a racist because I knew the truth and more importantly every African American with whom I had ever enjoyed a friendship or who worked with me in any capacity knew the truth, too.”
Charlotte.com – Jul 5, 2008 02:30 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: North Carolina: Charlotte
From the beginning, Jesse Helms' career was intertwined with race.His first political involvement was in North Carolina's 1950 U.S. Senate contest. The conservative candidate he backed won after a doctored photo showed his opponent's wife dancing with black soldiers.As a broadcaster in the 1960s, he was an ardent critic of civil rights.When the FBI arrested four white Alabama men in the 1965 death of white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, he asked, “The larger question, and America may as well face it, is why and how did the rage of these men become so great as to prompt them to commit such an outrage. Can it honestly be said there was no deliberate provocation of violence in Alabama?”In the Senate, where he long opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, he once told colleagues, “We're free, white and 21, as we say in North Carolina.” “Jesse Helms was powerful and famous, but he missed an opportunity to be great because he chose the wrong side of history,” Jesse Jackson told the Observer Friday. “The new North Carolina is now celebrated. He fought against it.”When Helms ran against former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, an African American, he ran an ad that showed white hands crumpling a rejection letter as a narrator said the job went to a minority. Critics say Helms used such ads to drive a wedge between white and black voters.“Jesse Helms definitely used a lot of what I call wedge issues to his advantage politically,” Gantt said Friday. “He was a master at using fear … whether it was communism or gay and lesbian groups or African Americans. He won elections that way and never lost.”Helms supporters call the hands ad a legitimate way to talk about proposed affirmative action legislation.“That bill was an affirmative action quota bill,” said John Dodd, who heads the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate. “Now is TV very graphic? Is TV tough? Senator Helms didn't like that ad. He told me he didn't like it. He said it was too hard.”Kerry Haynie, a Duke University political scientist, gives Helms credit for building the conservative movement and the N.C. Republican Party.“But at the same time, he built that Republican Party by taking advantage of and manipulating the issue of race,” he said. “Senator Helms was one of the most skillful politicians of his generation.”Haynie said that while other Southern conservatives, including former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, eventually courted African Americans, Helms never repudiated his former stands. “Senator Helms never, to my knowledge, relented or apologized for the hurt that he caused or the divisiveness that he injected into the politics of this state or national politics,” he said. During a 2005 interview, The Charlotte Observer asked Helms how he would respond to such critics.“The truth is the truth, whether people choose to accept it or not” he said. “Let me be very clear. From my earliest days, I was taught to respect all people. It is just that simple.“I never took the time to argue with the nonsense claims that I was a racist because I knew the truth and more importantly every African American with whom I had ever enjoyed a friendship or who worked with me in any capacity knew the truth, too.”
Charlotte.com – Jul 5, 2008 02:30 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: North Carolina: Charlotte
Richardson salutes those who paved way
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the first major Hispanic candidate to run for president, said Sunday that years of work by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition helped open up the presidential nomination process to minorities.
Chicago Sun Times – Jun 30, 2008 09:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the first major Hispanic candidate to run for president, said Sunday that years of work by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition helped open up the presidential nomination process to minorities.
Chicago Sun Times – Jun 30, 2008 09:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
Rev. Jackson Slams Gun Ruling, Vows New Effort
Nearly 13 hours after her 16-year-old son was shot in a drive-by, Denise Dixon stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, pleading for gun regulations in the wake of the controversial Supreme Court decision that could threaten Chicago's ban on handguns.
cbs2chicago.com – Jun 28, 2008 12:29 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
Nearly 13 hours after her 16-year-old son was shot in a drive-by, Denise Dixon stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, pleading for gun regulations in the wake of the controversial Supreme Court decision that could threaten Chicago's ban on handguns.
cbs2chicago.com – Jun 28, 2008 12:29 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
Jackson slams gun ruling, vows new effort
Nearly 13 hours after her 16-year-old son was shot in a drive-by, Denise Dixon stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, pleading for gun regulations in the wake of the controversial Supreme Court decision that could threaten Chicago's ban on handguns. Dixon said the community and lawmakers must fight for it.
Chicago Sun Times – Jun 28, 2008 09:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
Nearly 13 hours after her 16-year-old son was shot in a drive-by, Denise Dixon stood beside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, pleading for gun regulations in the wake of the controversial Supreme Court decision that could threaten Chicago's ban on handguns. Dixon said the community and lawmakers must fight for it.
Chicago Sun Times – Jun 28, 2008 09:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Chicago
Franchot, Jackson to discuss minority management of public pension funds
Comptroller Peter Franchot will be in Chicago Monday morning at a press conference with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to discuss ways to increase the number of minority investment managers for public pension funds.
Examiner.com – Jun 28, 2008 07:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Maryland: Baltimore
Comptroller Peter Franchot will be in Chicago Monday morning at a press conference with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to discuss ways to increase the number of minority investment managers for public pension funds.
Examiner.com – Jun 28, 2008 07:52 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Maryland: Baltimore
Clyburn: Obama-Clinton rally will help party heal
Wounds within the Democratic Party should begin to heal following Friday’s Obama-Clinton rally, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Friday.“There’s a lot of tension that’s built up and it’s still there,” Clyburn said Friday. “But I think it’s waning.”Clyburn made headlines around the nation after telling former President Bill Clinton to “chill out” after the former president compared Obama’s run to that of Rev. Jesse Jackson symbolic candidacy in 1988.Friday, Clyburn would not comment on whether President Clinton should remain in the background or embark on a more prominent role leading up to November.“When (Democrats) come out of that convention, we’ll be on the same page,” he said.
The State – Jun 28, 2008 03:33 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: South Carolina: Columbia
Wounds within the Democratic Party should begin to heal following Friday’s Obama-Clinton rally, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said Friday.“There’s a lot of tension that’s built up and it’s still there,” Clyburn said Friday. “But I think it’s waning.”Clyburn made headlines around the nation after telling former President Bill Clinton to “chill out” after the former president compared Obama’s run to that of Rev. Jesse Jackson symbolic candidacy in 1988.Friday, Clyburn would not comment on whether President Clinton should remain in the background or embark on a more prominent role leading up to November.“When (Democrats) come out of that convention, we’ll be on the same page,” he said.
The State – Jun 28, 2008 03:33 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: South Carolina: Columbia
Jesse Jackson vows to redline Chicago gunshops
Associated Press - June 27, 2008 5:54 PM ET CHICAGO (AP) - In the wake of this week's Supreme Court ruling overturning the District of Columbia's handgun ban, the Reverend Jesse Jackson says he...
WANDtv.com – Jun 27, 2008 9:54 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Champaign-Springfield-Decatur
Associated Press - June 27, 2008 5:54 PM ET CHICAGO (AP) - In the wake of this week's Supreme Court ruling overturning the District of Columbia's handgun ban, the Reverend Jesse Jackson says he...
WANDtv.com – Jun 27, 2008 9:54 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Illinois: Champaign-Springfield-Decatur
Today's eye-openers: Highlights from Friday's Birmingham News
The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth receives a visit from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Mountain Brook institution will close after 41 years, and still more reaction to the arrest of Alabama's Jimmy Johns.HOT TOPICSThe Birmingham News/Tamika MooreThe Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, reminisced about the civil rights movement on Thursday and led a prayer during a visit with the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Jackson also supports renaming the Birmingham airport for the civil rights icon.http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554593111250.xml&coll=2Beverly Gardner, who has fought to open Alabama family courts to the public and provide more legal resources to families dealing with the state Department of Human Resources, loves to share her story of overcoming obstacles to build a family of 16 children. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554617111250.xml&coll=2See more images of the Gardner family.Will Alabama's summer be wet or dry? Forecasts indicate it's equally likely that rainfallwill exceed normal levels or fall below, says climatologist John Christy. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554601111250.xml&coll=2The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on gun rights won't have much impact in Alabama, experts say, but a couple of state law enforcement officials applaud the decision. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554592111250.xml&coll=2Ruben Studdard, who crooned and rocked his way to the top of "American Idol" in 2003, said his marriage Saturday will be followed by an album produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.http://www.al.com/entertainment/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1214554610111250.xml&coll=2MORE NEWSSPORTS OPENERSKevin Scarbinsky reports that Dave Rader, ex-Alabama offensive coordinator, said the judgment that Mike Shula left behind a bunch of thugs who've since run amok "is not fair, for sure, and it's not accurate."http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/kscarbinsky.ssf?/base/sports/1214554609111250.xml&coll=2Three Birmingham swim team alumni are making a first-ever bid to make the U.S. Olympic team at the Trials next week in Omaha, Neb. http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1214554600111250.xml&coll=2MORE SPORTSBUSINESS OPENERSNext month, the owners of Leah's Leaves will close their small shop in Mountain Brook Village as they eye a retirement filled with family time and traveling, capping off a 41-year career that Leah Leaf says has brought her great satisfaction. http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1214554587111250.xml&coll=2MORE BUSINESSLIFE/STYLE OPENERSFinally -- Breakfast at Browdy's: A Birmingham institution puts morning on its menu. http://www.al.com/entertainment/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1214554565111250.xml&coll=2MORE LIFESTYLEOPINION OPENERSShuttlesworth International as the name of Birmingham's airport would pay tribute to the outsized role of "the Wild Man from Birmingham" in the city's history. http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1214554612111250.xml&coll=2
al.com - Everything Alabama – Jun 27, 2008 10:37 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham
The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth receives a visit from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Mountain Brook institution will close after 41 years, and still more reaction to the arrest of Alabama's Jimmy Johns.HOT TOPICSThe Birmingham News/Tamika MooreThe Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, reminisced about the civil rights movement on Thursday and led a prayer during a visit with the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Jackson also supports renaming the Birmingham airport for the civil rights icon.http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554593111250.xml&coll=2Beverly Gardner, who has fought to open Alabama family courts to the public and provide more legal resources to families dealing with the state Department of Human Resources, loves to share her story of overcoming obstacles to build a family of 16 children. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554617111250.xml&coll=2See more images of the Gardner family.Will Alabama's summer be wet or dry? Forecasts indicate it's equally likely that rainfallwill exceed normal levels or fall below, says climatologist John Christy. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554601111250.xml&coll=2The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on gun rights won't have much impact in Alabama, experts say, but a couple of state law enforcement officials applaud the decision. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214554592111250.xml&coll=2Ruben Studdard, who crooned and rocked his way to the top of "American Idol" in 2003, said his marriage Saturday will be followed by an album produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.http://www.al.com/entertainment/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1214554610111250.xml&coll=2MORE NEWSSPORTS OPENERSKevin Scarbinsky reports that Dave Rader, ex-Alabama offensive coordinator, said the judgment that Mike Shula left behind a bunch of thugs who've since run amok "is not fair, for sure, and it's not accurate."http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/kscarbinsky.ssf?/base/sports/1214554609111250.xml&coll=2Three Birmingham swim team alumni are making a first-ever bid to make the U.S. Olympic team at the Trials next week in Omaha, Neb. http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1214554600111250.xml&coll=2MORE SPORTSBUSINESS OPENERSNext month, the owners of Leah's Leaves will close their small shop in Mountain Brook Village as they eye a retirement filled with family time and traveling, capping off a 41-year career that Leah Leaf says has brought her great satisfaction. http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1214554587111250.xml&coll=2MORE BUSINESSLIFE/STYLE OPENERSFinally -- Breakfast at Browdy's: A Birmingham institution puts morning on its menu. http://www.al.com/entertainment/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1214554565111250.xml&coll=2MORE LIFESTYLEOPINION OPENERSShuttlesworth International as the name of Birmingham's airport would pay tribute to the outsized role of "the Wild Man from Birmingham" in the city's history. http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1214554612111250.xml&coll=2
al.com - Everything Alabama – Jun 27, 2008 10:37 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham
UPDATE: Jesse Jackson Challenges Parents
A civil rights activist wants to stop what he calls the cycle of the school emergency. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr announced his joint venture with Mayor Larry Langford called the million parent pledge Thursday. He's asking parents to commit to helping their kids get a better education.
NBC13.com – Jun 26, 2008 9:45 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham
A civil rights activist wants to stop what he calls the cycle of the school emergency. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr announced his joint venture with Mayor Larry Langford called the million parent pledge Thursday. He's asking parents to commit to helping their kids get a better education.
NBC13.com – Jun 26, 2008 9:45 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham
Jesse Jackson Challenges Parents
Jesse Jackson wants 20,000 Birmingham parents to sign up for the Million Parent Pledge. If Parents choose to commit to this six-point-pledge, he believes it will make a difference in the lives of their children. More later on NBC13.com and on the television side on 4:30, 5 and 6.
NBC13.com – Jun 26, 2008 8:32 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham
Jesse Jackson wants 20,000 Birmingham parents to sign up for the Million Parent Pledge. If Parents choose to commit to this six-point-pledge, he believes it will make a difference in the lives of their children. More later on NBC13.com and on the television side on 4:30, 5 and 6.
NBC13.com – Jun 26, 2008 8:32 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Local: Alabama: Birmingham