Stories related to: Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson praised Barack Obama's key victory last night as a "transformational moment" in American history, Reuters reports. "We knew this breakthrough was possible—we didn't know when or who," said the two-time presidential candidate, emphasizing the remarkable 53-year journey of African-Americans from a Mississippi lynching in 1955 to today. More »

Secret Service supervisors exchanged racist remarks in emails made public yesterday in a lawsuit filed by black agents, the New York Times reports. The messages were shared between at least 20 top agents between 2003 and 2005. One anecdote jokes about assassinating Jesse Jackson. And, according to the lawsuit, the head of the Presidential Protective Detail sent a crude joke about interracial sex to a colleague. More »

Jesse Jackson was outside the Lorraine Motel when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 40 years ago today, and the sound of the gunshot still echoes in his memory. Jackson talks with the Chicago Sun-Times about that day, and how race relations have "detoxified"  in the ensuing years. But King, he said, would have been distressed that the nation still has "first-class jails, second-class schools." More »

With tomorrow marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson pens an appreciation for the New York Daily News . Jackson worked with the civil-rights giant in 1968 on King's last, tragically unfulfilled project, the Poor People’s Campaign. "He'd keep on dreaming and organizing," Jackson writes of King, were he still alive today. More »

With an eye on November, Jesse Jackson warned Democrats yesterday to patch up their battle wounds from the ongoing Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama feud or they "could hurt themselves substantially, perhaps irreparably," reports Politico. First on his agenda is making sure that black-Latino tensions are not "exacerbated," he stressed. "You just can’t characterize things as Hispanics for Hillary and blacks for Obama." More »

Major League Baseball's umpires are fighting mad, and Jesse Jackson is behind them 100%, after reports surfaced that league officials have been asking umps' neighbors questions about marijuana use, domestic violence, and potential membership in the Ku Klux Klan. "They have essentially defamed their people in their own neighborhoods," Jackson told the AP. More »

Left-wing netroots tastemaker Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is endorsing Mitt Romney in next week’s Michigan primary. You read that right. In Michigan's open primary system, any registered voter can cast a Republican ballot, and the blogger calls for strategic sabotage. With the Democratic race uncontested, the Michigan left can back a GOP candidate, he writes, “adding fuel to their civil war.” More »

With only three black US Senators and two black governors elected since Reconstruction, and the vast majority of black politicians representing predominately black communities, veteran race watchers anticipated another decade before a candidate of color could be a top contender for the Oval Office. But that was before Obama. The Washington Post examines how Barack's unprecedented crossover success has changed thinking among black political leaders. More »

The FBI is investigating a white supremacist site that listed the addresses and phone numbers of five of the so-called Jena Six, and “essentially called for their lynching,” the agency said yesterday. “These people need more than an investigation. They need protection,” Jesse Jackson told the AP, noting the near round-the-clock threatening calls the families receive. More »

Mychal Bell, the black Louisiana teenager in jail since December for the battery of a white classmate, was not released on bail yesterday, as has supporters had hoped. The day after a demonstration that brought 10,000 civil rights activists to the tiny town to protest the treatment of the teenagers, a juvenile court judge denied his request to be freed while an appeal of his conviction is being reviewed. More »

As many as 20,000 demonstrators flooded the streets of the tiny Louisiana town of Jena yesterday to protest the treatment of the "Jena 6"— the black high school students charged with felonies after the beating last year of a white student. An appeals court at midday ordered a hearing within 72 hours to determine if the lone teen still behind bars can be released. More »

Busload after busload of civil rights marchers alighted in Jena, La., today to support the “Jena Six,” a group of black students charged with felonies after a 2006 fight with a white classmate. An estimated 50,000 mostly-black protesters easily outnumbered the mostly-white population of the town, where racial tensions have swirled since last year when nooses in the schoolyard prompted the fight. More »

Rev. Jess Jackson and Fr. Michael Pfleger were arrested for blocking the door of Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale, a suburb abutting the southern edge of Chicago.  They and others were there protesting the ready availability of guns next to a crime-plagued part of the city, which bans the sales of guns. More »

Five days after characterizing the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's," renegade radio personality  Don Imus received a two-week suspension from NBC News and CBS Radio, along with a mandate that he must change the tone of his show, the Times reported. Imus made a contrite appearance on "Keepin It Real," the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show. More »

Never mind his skin color—Barack Obama doesn't have a record that can guarantee black turnout, writes inquirer Harold Jackson. Prominent African American leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are still undecided, and Obama will have to court that constituency just like rival Hillary Clinton did. More »

Jesse's backing Barack, despite his long friendship with the Clintons, the civil rights veteran told the AP yesterday.  "He's got my vote,"  Jackson said, dismissing suggestions that he might feel obligated to support Hillary. "It's not awkward at all," he said, adding, "I don't owe a debt to any of them." More »