Jesse Jackson's enduring popularity with African-Americans

• Originally published by NPR on 8/5/2004

From NPR in Los Angeles, I'm Tavis Smiley.
A recent Black Entertainment Television/CBS News poll ranks the Reverend Jesse Jackson as the most important national leader in black America today. For years, Jackson has remained at the top of this leadership list, according to various polls. In this latest survey, 21 percent of black respondents ranked Jackson first among black leaders, nearly twice the number who named Secretary of State Colin Powell, the second-place finisher. Bush even appeared to give a nod to Jackson's popularity with black voters when he made two doting references during his recent speech at the National Urban League convention. Our regular commentator Michael Eric Dyson joins us now to share his insight on why Reverend Jesse Jackson remains so popular in black America.

Michael, nice to have you on, as always.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON:

Always good to be here, Brother Tavis.

SMILEY: You know, Jesse Jackson has had his share of controversies, shall we say it. How do you explain his longevity and still ongoing popularity with many African-Americans?

DYSON: It is remarkable to think that over a career that has spanned more than 40 years of public service, going from sitting in in North Carolina to becoming a student activist as a seminary student, and then retiring from the seminary to take the helm of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Chicago, and then after splitting with that group to form his own Operation PUSH, People United to Serve Humanity, after being Save Humanity, and then on to the Rainbow Coalition, Reverend Jackson has, of course, with his runs in '84 and '88, cemented his status as the premier African-American leader, and indeed moral leader, of so much of American politics over that time. And it's remarkable to have that kind of staying power, Tavis. I think it's attributed to the fact that he has protected the poor, he has prophetically spoken to the powerful, he has negotiated for the release of prisoners throughout the world, always understanding that those who have been victimized must have a voice. And I think that's why he remains, so to speak, at the top of the heap.

SMILEY: Like Reverend Jackson or loathe Reverend Jesse Jackson, there are two things for me, watching him and knowing him over the years, that I think keeps him at the top of these lists. One, Jesse understands the issues, domestically and globally, and secondly, nobody, metaphorically or theologically or culturally can connect to black people with an explanation of what's really going on in the way that he can. You just can't fade his prose.

DYSON: That's exactly right, and there's no question that his genius is remarkable. In many ways, people don't know this side of Jesse Jackson, the kind of humility. They see the Jesse Jackson, stalwart, straightforward. They think he's an egomaniacal figure. When you really know Reverend Jesse Jackson, of course, like anybody in public life, you've got to have a strong enough ego to endure. What's important about him is that as you've said, he understands the knowledge that is necessary to transmit to people, and he has a grasp of such a wide range of information, knowledge and explanation. He studies hard, he thinks profoundly and he penetrates to the core of the matter.

And that relates to the second point you made, that is, his metaphoric genius, his ability to make you see plainly what the truth is, grows from a tradition of African-American rhetoric that says, 'Make it plain,' and one of the ways to make it plain is to undress power through language that clearly and articulately addresses the issues that need to be addressed. And in that sense, Jesse Jackson has no peer in terms of public intellectual as politician and prophetic figure.

SMILEY: Also, I get the sense that part of his popularity inside of black America has to do with how he is viewed outside of black America, that is to say, even white folk, if you asked them to put together a list of black leaders, have to, like it or not, start with Jesse Jackson.

DYSON: Well, no question, and part of Jesse's appeal does hinge on the fact that the larger community has had to recognize him, but it's been a fight. So he's not one of those, as the Bible would say, 'when all men speak well of you.' He's the guy who's always courted controversy because he's been willing to put himself on the front line to bear the burden of truth-telling, and to love black people with a kind of fierce disregard for white consequence, and that's a kind of nobility and courage that lacks so notably in so much of our leadership today.

SMILEY: Folk outside of black America who would suggest that, 'Come on, y'all, there are more leaders in your community than just Jesse Jackson,' they still engage--the media, that is, engages in a self-fulfilling prophecy. They will say on the one hand that Jesse ain't the only leader in black America, but he's always the media's go-to guy.

DYSON: First of all, he's their go-to guy because he can talk, and it's one thing to be able to talk, but it's another thing to be able to do it in five-minute soundbites.

SMILEY: Yeah.

DYSON: People used to ridicule Reverend Jesse Jackson for his rhyme scheme, what one author called 'grating jingoism rhyme scheme,' but you know what? You remember 'Upward hope, downward dope.'

SMILEY: 'And downward dope.'

DYSON: 'I am somebody.'

SMILEY: 'Somebody.'

DYSON: You know what?

SMILEY: 'Keep hope.'

DYSON: There's like a hook. That's right.

SMILEY: Yeah. Yeah.

DYSON: There's like a hook on a song. You may not like that song, but dadgum it, you ain't going to forget it.

SMILEY: Yeah.

DYSON: And you know, our time has come, from the outhouse to the White House. I know...

SMILEY: Yeah. Hands that picked cotton will now pick a president.

DYSON: Or Lord have mercy, Jesus.

SMILEY: Yeah.

DYSON: Come on, now. This is the man whose prophetic preacherly genius has been tethered to a political insight that speaks on behalf of people from whom he comes. And I'm going to tell you what else I like about Jesse Jackson, if we can put it this way. He's still a brother. In other words, at the end of the day, you can count on this man to understand pork chops and politics, to understand collard greens and color, and that's his genius, drawn from that Southern brutality that was hoisted upon him as white supremacy, he transformed that trauma into something transcendent, and he speaks on our behalf. And no matter what he does, we can never reduce the complexity of his genius to whatever fault or mistake he's made. His edifying legacy will be that he spoke to a culture that was tired of black people and forced them to come to grips with our issues in the midst of that. Arguably, that was as difficult as the initial stage of the civil rights movement in the '50s and '60s.

SMILEY: Well, the Democratic Party doesn't see it that way these days about Reverend Jackson. That's the subject, maybe, of next week's commentary.

DYSON: Well, you know what? Part two, I'm going to deal with that.

SMILEY: Michael Eric Dyson, professor in the humanities at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the NAACP Image Award-winning book, "Why I Love Black Women." His latest book is "Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves & Demons of Marvin Gaye."

As always, Michael, nice to talk to you.

DYSON: Always great to talk to you, Brother Tavis.