When I was in college, I nearly met Rev. Jesse Jackson. It was around 2000 when I was enrolled at Georgia Southern University and Jackson was scheduled to speak one afternoon.
I think there had been some mix up in the location as several people felt it was supposed to be in the main ballroom of the Russell Union, the student union center and other offices and departments. It’s big and definitely could accommodate a lot of people.
Well, there was another event going on there and I argue it wasn’t an accident. Or maybe Rev. Jackson, who recently passed away, had been late to schedule an event. But he was speaking in the Williams Center which was not too far away from the Russell Union, but its ballroom was dwarfed in size to the ballroom at the Union.
The Williams Center is where the Student Media offices are located as well as other departments and because of the make-up of the campus and building, the ballroom was both on the ground floor and second floor because the Center is built on a slope.
Anyway, I stopped by the Center after eating lunch at either or the Union or the now-demolished Landrum Cafeteria which had been called “Land-dump” by many people before a huge overall of the facilities in 1998 changed the outline and improved the quality of food. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to walk in as Jackson was already speaking but I stood out in the hall and listened to him for a bit.
Then, I stepped outside on the balcony to smoke a cigarette. At the time, you could still smoke on campus before it went tobacco-free like most colleges and universities. After getting my nicotine fix, I turned around to walk back in and as I opened the door, Jackson turned the corner coming out of the ballroom. Well, I was going to be a good ambassador and hold the door open for him and the people with him.
But then, he turned to the left and was escorted into a small room just off to the side to sign autographs. So, I’m standing there for a moment with a goofy smile on my face reeking of smoke. And that was the time I nearly met Jackson.
About two years later, I would meet another well-known civil rights activist, Andrew Young. It was when I was working at the Americus Times-Recorder. We had a nice few minutes to chitchat over digital cameras as he was commenting on the Kodiak camera my company used and pulled out a smaller digital camera from his pocket. I must say I enjoyed speaking with Young over Elijah Cummings, who was a Congressional representative from Maryland. Young was very friendly and impersonal. Cummings acted like he was the first black person I had ever seen.
Regardless, it was a nice moment to see someone famous. I had seen Billy Blanks back when Taebo was popular as he was doing a special seminar in 1998 or 1999. I and others were surprised how short Blanks was in real life. But Jackson had a normal height.
Growing up in Georgia, there’s a lot of people who probably never did like Jackson. I admit he could be a little apprehensive and provoke issues on Civil Rights where they’re weren’t any to be discussed necessarily. But as the old saying goes, “Shit doesn’t stick unless you stir the pot.”
Funniest thing about GSU is that it had a higher percentage of black students than Georgia Tech and University of Georgia at the time. I worked as with the night supervisor program through the Housing Department and I was one of the few white people. My roommate my first year was black and of Nigerian ancestry. My second year roommate was interracial. I hung out with black people and even went on a date was a young black woman but it was mostly friendly.
Just as the lyrics say, “It’s a different world from where you come from.”
I grew up around Confederate monuments in northwest Georgia. People were very racist and the N-word was sad a lot. Some of the people I hung out with in college were very open about their racial bigotry so I made new friends. There were stories of the Ku Klux Klan having regular meetings in a farm pasture land that was a few miles from the “projects” which people called another “N—–town.”
And as “Redneck Day” was popular during homecoming week at my high school, it was pretty much ended when a group of students decided to drive around the high school campus which was adjacent to the “projects” waving huge Confederate flags. (That was back in 1995. Can you imagine what would happen if that was today?)
Yes, Jackson made a few mistakes himself. He referred to New York City as “Hymietown” during 1984. The use of a Jewish slur put a damper on his Presidential campaign. But it was unlikely in 1984, Democrats would elect Jackson anyway. Even Walter Mondale who was so white he could have been the posterchild for “Minnesota Nice” didn’t fare too well against Ronald Reagan that year.
Jackson also didn’t do too well during the 1988 Presidential year as he lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis. However, it felt like there was some vindication when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Jackson was there crying as history was made.
His sons, Jonathan Jackson and Jesse Jackson Jr., have served in Congress.
Maybe Jackson was a little too extreme from white middle Americans. But if you’re going to push for equal rights for all, you have to push hard. I agree with him to some degree that Hollywood needed to make more diverse movies. But at the time, we didn’t really have many diverse filmmakers. Yet, audiences seemed to be coming around too.
Love him or hate him, he knew when to be diplomatic and when to attack. There’s probably a lot of people celebrating his death. But as he was a strong opponent to police brutality and conservative policies, most of us know are seeing what he was talking about where as they had blinders on years before.
Jackson reportedly had been diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, which has conditions similar to Parkinson’s disease. He was 84.
I’d like to express my condolences to his family and friend. Peace and love be with you all.
Zane Says 