Democrats Try to Be Tough on Blacks, Jackson Charges

Jesse Jackson said Sunday that Democratic Party leaders are attempting to attract white male voters by “proving they can be tough on blacks” and that blacks now must reassess their loyalty to the party.

Jackson said Democratic leaders are engaging in “self-deception” by failing to understand the reasons for their defeat in November and failing to recognize that blacks, the young, women, Latinos, Asians and the poor represent the party’s future.

Jackson had more harsh words for party leaders and made it clear that he will not recognize the election of Roland W. Burris, the black Illinois state comptroller who defeated Mayor Richard G. Hatcher of Gary, Ind., for the party vice chairmanship.

Hatcher was the choice of the party’s Black Caucus, and served as Jackson’s campaign chairman.

‘Product of Violation’

“I assume Roland has his own constituency, since he went outside of the black people in the party,” Jackson said in an interview from his hospital room here, where he is recuperating from pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung. “I will not affirm the product of the violation” of the Black Caucus.

Jackson said he would deal with the national party through Paul G. Kirk Jr., new party chairman, and Black Caucus Chairman C. Delores Tucker, rather than Burris.

But Jackson accused Kirk of attempting to “gain in stature at the expense of blacks” by opposing the Black Caucus nominee. Hatcher’s defeat was viewed by some party leaders as a rebuke for Jackson.

Jackson said he is advising black Democrats to “reassess their relationship with the party.” If the pattern of denial of blacks continues, he said, blacks--the party’s most loyal voting bloc--will leave the party and become independents.

Must Identify Needs

The future of the party, he said, is in addressing the “laws of organization--identifying needs and servicing needs to develop a loyal constituency.”

Jackson said Kirk’s election without support from New York, California, the Southern states or blacks is a continuation of the Walter F. Mondale-labor coalition that lost the last election. “Kirk inherited Mondale’s legacy. He won on the muscle of organized labor,” Jackson said.

Jackson said organized labor was guilty of “scapegoating” blacks by orchestrating Hatcher’s defeat with arguments that special-interest groups, such as blacks, should not dominate the party.

Jackson said the record black voter turnout--about 10% of the national turnout and higher in several large states--almost all went for Democratic candidates and “should be seen as a party asset and not a liability.”