No black contemporary leader contributed more to the black political and economical power base in Chicago than the
forces of Jesse Jackson. The bedrock of his power base was his Push Organization and the many community and
church organizations that supported and surrounded him from the mid-sixties when he headed Southern Christian
Leadership Conference’s Operation Bread Basket, to the early eighties when he ran for president. He was recognized
as the most serious black Presidential candidate since Shirley Chisholm’s candidacy back in 1972.
I would be remiss not to mention that had it not been for Jesse Jackson and the many community, church and
political black forces that surrounded him in Chicago, the stage could never have been set to elect Harold
Washington mayor of Chicago.
Back during the seventies when Jesse’s Operation Push Organization was at its peak, threatening large corporations
with national economic boycotts if they didn’t give blacks a piece of the action, Jesse demanded that they “cut us in or
cut it out.” He brought the A & P food chain stores to their knees, through a national boycott. This thereby forced
many of the others to fall in line and initiate programs to hire more blacks in upper man-agement, donate more money
to traditionally black colleges and universities, and make a special effort to do business with black vendors and
product manufacturers. Had it not been for Jesse Jackson, many of the black hair & cosmetic products that you often
see in many of the national chain stores wouldn’t be there.
Again, during the peak of the Operation Push campaign to apply pressure on corporate America, it was once stated
by a CEO of a top 500 corporation, “It is not a call from the IRS auditors or a government official or even the FBI that
would worry and get the attention of a CEO, it would be a call from Jesse Jackson.”
Given the many powerful people that Jesse has shaken up both in the public and private sector, I have often
wondered, why haven’t they done him in or taken him out?
Oh, I know why … God wouldn’t let ’em.
Best Wishes Jesse.
Enough Said
Recommended Reading:
Up with hope: a biography of Jesse Jackson by Dorothy Chaplik
The picture life of Jesse Jackson by Warren J. Halliburton
Jesse Jackson by Robert E. Jakoubek
Jesse Jackson by Anna Kosof Jesse Jackson by Pat McKissack
Jesse Jackson: I am somebody by Paul Westman