I knew this. I was there, not
physically, but involved. I remember this controversy in the
community. I remember the quiet outrage at Jesse. I remember how many
among us at that time thought he was a shyster and still do. Yet, it
was a time when the south side of Chicago was burning, there was hurt
and pain, we didn't need more. So we
stayed silent. Now it's time for the truth to come out on what a liar
he really is. He has done much damage to the community by his
deceptions. I didn't write this, but its true. If you are under 65
this is history to you. If you are over, this is memory:
"" For
most Americans, Jesse Jackson first popped into view immediately
following the sniper assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King on
April 4, 1968.
The very next day Jackson was on NBC’s Today
show telling the world that King had “died in my arms” on the balcony of
the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He graphically detailed how he alone had
cradled the Reverend King’s head and was “the last person on Earth” to
hear King’s dying words. To ratchet up the emotional temperature, Mr.
Jackson appeared on camera sporting a stained turtleneck sweater that he
assured the world was drenched in the blood of Doctor King. It was
gripping television.
Jackson repeated this story at a Chicago
City Council commemoration of King later that day and again four days
after that in the Chicago Defender and also in more than a hundred more
news articles over the following seven years. It was all a load of crap.
Mr. Jackson fabricated every bit of this false history, right down to
the bogus blood-stained photo-op-prop turtleneck sweater.
White
liberals just “knew” that Jackson was the “fiery heir apparent to
Martin Luther King” because no less an intellectual luminary than Hugh
Hefner had vouched for Jackson using those exact words in a Playboy
magazine interview (Nov, 1969). Playboy assured all liberals that “The
Reverend Jackson’s first national exposure came as a result of his
closeness to Dr. King. He was talking to King on the porch of the
Lorraine Motel in Memphis when the fatal shot was fired, and cradled the
dying man in his arms.”
Hefner needed better fact checkers; so
did Time magazine, which repeated this whopper as a cover story in its
April 6, 1970 issue. Jackson’s preposterous self promotion was finally
blown apart in 1975 when black reporter Barbara Reynolds made the effort
to interview members of Reverend King’s inner circle.
Speaking
bluntly, Hosea Williams, a close associate of King who was present when
the sniper struck, declared: “The only person who cradled Dr. King was
[the Reverend Ralph] Abernathy.” He added, “It’s a helluva thing to
capitalize on a man’s death, especially one you professed to love.”
The Reverend Ralph Abernathy remarked, “I am sure Reverend Jackson
would not say to me that he cradled Dr. King. I am sure that Reverend
Jackson would realize that I was the person who was on the balcony with
Dr. King and did not leave his side until he was pronounced dead at St.
Joseph’s Hospital in Memphis. I am sure that he would not say to me that
he even came near Dr. King after Doc was shot.”
Here’s the
truth: When the shot was fired Jackson was schmoozing with Chicago
musician Ben Branch in the motel courtyard. Mr. Branch later reflected,
“My guess is that Jesse smeared the blood on his shirt after getting it
off the balcony. But who knows where he got it from? All I can say is
that Jesse didn’t touch him.” An eye witness reported that Jackson hid
behind the motel swimming pool after the shot was fired.
The
first persons to reach the wounded civil rights leader were Andrew Young
and an unidentified white man who gave assistance. They were joined
almost immediately by Ralph Abernathy.
For many years Jesse
Jackson would point to a photograph of himself in the company of Dr.
King and the Reverend Abernathy on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel as
evidence that he was with King at his death. In truth, that photo had
been taken a day earlier, not moments before King’s fatal injury, as
Jackson falsely claimed. Photographs that were taken seconds after the
rifle shot do not include Jesse Jackson.
When an ambulance
arrived, it was Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy who went with King to
the hospital. Only when the news crews from ABC, NBC and CBS arrived at
the motel did Jackson come out of hiding and begin spouting lies about
how he was the last person to whom King spoke. Hosea Williams recalls:
“I was in my room. I looked out and saw Jesse talking to these TV
people. I came out to hear what was being said. I heard Jesse say, ‘Yes,
I was the last man in the world King spoke to.’”
Upon hearing
this outrageous lie, Mr. Williams jumped a railing and dashed toward
Jackson. He was restrained by a police officer. “I called Jesse a dirty,
stinking, lying so-and-so . . .”
The Jackson mythology
deepened when reporters began referring to Mr. Jackson as Reverend
Jackson, when, in fact, he was no such thing. Jackson was a seminary
school dropout. He attended the Chicago Theological Seminary for a scant
six months and then dropped out. He failed a required course in sermon
composition and oration. Jackson failed to complete even a required
minimum of three one-hour classes a week. In 1967, Jackson was put on
the school’s “reserve” list because it was evident that he would not
graduate. So, Mister Jackson was not a reverend in 1968; he simply
awarded himself that title to promote himself in an occupation that was
rife with clergymen: civil rights activism.
The Chicago
Theological Seminary didn’t award Jackson a divinity degree until June
of 2000, by which time the school’s board of trustees included the
influential Democrat congressman from Chicago, Jesse Jackson, Junior. To
“earn” his diploma, Jesse Jackson the Elder spent a relaxed hour
answering a few questions posed to him by an admittedly awestruck young
woman.
Thomas Clough
Copyright 2007
May 18,2007
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