Someone who stood alongside Jesse Jackson during some of the most consequential chapters of the modern Civil Rights Movement is Andrew Young. He’s a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former mayor of Atlanta and longtime lieutenant to the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Geoff Bennett spoke with Young about his work with Jackson.
Geoff Bennett:
Well, let me ask you more about that, because his 1984 and 1988 campaigns reshaped politics, reshaped the Democratic Party, reshaped coalition politics.
What did his voice as a preacher allow him to do, allow him to say that a traditional politician could not?
Andrew Young:
Well, it was not so much that it allowed him to say anything different. He was basically saying the same thing that Martin Luther King and his father were saying years before, and even Martin’s grandfather.
But Jesse mixed it with the modern jazz of the ’60s and the kind of a hip-hop of sort of give-and-take speech, as though you’re preaching to yourself. You ask a question and then you give the answer. But he was a very effective speaker, partially because he had a great voice, and he was he was really a good-looking kid.
He spoke the language of the young people, which was more rhythmic and give-and-take. And he was funny. He could turn a phrase. And “I am somebody” became an effort of asserting his identity in a society that did not really recognize him.
Geoff Bennett:
When history writes about Jesse Jackson, what do you hope it understands about his place in the long arc of the civil rights movement?
Andrew Young:
Well, I think that he certainly deserves an important place, if not for his runs for presidency, for his ability to mobilize large numbers of people.
He was a great speaker before a crowd. And he was always able to gather a crowd. In fact, every Saturday morning, he rallied the churches of Chicago, first in Operation Breadbaskets and then Operation PUSH, which were efforts on his part to get the economy of Black America integrated into the economy of, in this case, the supermarkets and department stores.
And he was something of an economic prophet before he started his run for the presidency.
Geoff Bennett:
Ambassador Andrew Young, thank you for your time, sir, and my condolences on the loss of your friend.
Andrew Young:
Thank you.
