I chose that memorable Saturday Night Live bit above because it shows Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who died today, at his best: smart, self-deprecating, charming and likeable. Jackson could slide into demagoguery (he was good at it), and he was frequently, even usually, a divisive presence on the national scene. Nonetheless, he was ultimately a catalyst for more good developments in American society, culture and politics than bad. But it’s a close call.
Civil rights was by no means achieved by the time Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The stain of Jim Crow was still strong in the South, and de facto segregation was rife everywhere else, as in my hometown of Boston where it often seemed like there were more black players on the field playing for the Red Sox than in the stands at Fenway Park. The school busing controversy was six years away in 1968.
With the eloquent and charismatic King martyred, the nation needed a new leader of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X was brilliant and charismatic but radical and racist. Rev. Ralph Abernathy was boring, a pale (no pun intended) successor to King. The other leaders of the civil rights movement resonated as grifters, determined to prove Eric Hoffer right when he argued that “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and turns into a racket.” As happens so often in American history, Jesse Jackson was the right leader to emerge when the nation needed him.
Ethics Alarms 
What I consider the most memorable alleged Jesse Jackson quote, regarding Barack Obama, “I’d like to cut his nuts off,” or some version thereof.
I remember that!
Now wasn’t that polite of Mr. Trump to gloss over a desire for neutering Obama by merely referring to Mr. Jacksons hate?
I disagree, he did not ‘leave this world better.” He assited, actively and intentioanlly, in dividing the world and it s problems strictly along a racail divide. His view of the world was literally “black and white.” He could not and would nto recognize the faulted issues n hte black community. He contually t blaming the white community. even decades after the Jim Crow era ended. He, in fact, sided with the very party that institutied the Jim Crow era.
I do not see heroic virtues in his life that rise to the level of hagioography.
Remember what he said about abortion in 1984?
I remember how he and his son shook down Anheuser Busch to obtain a lucrative Chicago distributorship.
Yep. Jesse was enterprising in that respect, wasn’t he?
Jesse Jackson did good stuff for race relations? Hardly.
jvb
He shook down American Express when Mrs. OB was there. He had a consulting company that would go around to Fortune Five Hundred companies and say, “Nice little company you got here. Don’t you think you need some consultants to come in and get your racist employees to not act like honkies anymore?” Whereupon the companies would write a big check. I’m not sure the “consultants” ever even showed up.
But of course there was blatant racial discrimination at many of those Fortune 500 companies, Just as there is discrimination at most of the colleges and universities Trump has been “shaking down.” The whole civil right movement was fueled by “shakedowns”—palpable threats—from the beginning.
Baseed on that, then, the whole civil rights movement was a travesty and a canard.
Pardon my hard line, but Jackson’s honorable legacy is/was shredded by his philandering, race baiting, and shakedowns. To me. those are signatures of a cynical opportunist.
jvb
As you know, John, one can be an important agent for reform and a historical figure who made a major improvement in society as well as a cynical opportunist.
“Yep. Jesse was enterprising in that respect, wasn’t he?”
Masterfully understated…
After the November 2006 Michael Richards RACIST MELTDOWN, Jackson was…um…corresponding with Jerry Seinfeld regarding the latter’s newly released DVD set.
My recall is that negotiations broke down rather abruptly, after which Jackson (true to form) called for a BOYCOTT of the DVDs, which DIDN’T GO WELL
IMO, Jackson was angling for a percentage of the sales and, to his credit, Seinfeld told him to take a flyin’ phuque off a rollin’ donut.
PWS
All tangential, in my view, to Jesse’s keeping the pressure on regarding integration, when the pressure needed to be on. That he couldn’t resist playing the shakedown game is a black mark to be sure, but ultimately not primary in the big picture.
Jesse’s son is another story.