CAMPAIGN ’88 : Old Foes Are Allies in Jackson’s ‘New South’

The Rev. Jesse Jackson brought his exhortations for unity in a “New South” to Selma, Ala., the scene of an old civil rights clash, appearing Wednesday with a white mayor who was once his foe to symbolize what both called their common struggle.

“Ancient foes become allies in the glory and the challenge of the New South,” Jackson said, with the mayor at his side. “All of us come on different boats, but we’re on the same boat now.”

It is a theme Jackson has made central to his Democratic presidential campaign message in the South, as he celebrates civil rights advances but bemoans the lack of what he calls economic justice. In Selma, where civil rights marchers were set upon 23 years ago by police on a day activists remember as “Bloody Sunday,” the message had particular resonance.

As Jackson delivered a speech at Selma University and met nearby residents outside their ramshackle houses, Joe Smitherman, Selma’s mayor then and now, stood by him. In 1965, Smitherman said, he had ordered the arrests of civil rights activists, including Jackson, who had flocked to Selma after the violence to organize what became the successful march to Montgomery.

On Wednesday, Smitherman echoed his old foe’s new message. “What we need now is better housing, more jobs, improved health care,” the mayor said. “Our problems are right here in this country, at the sidewalk outside our door.”

But while endorsing Jackson’s message, Smitherman stopped short of endorsing his candidacy and did not join Jackson as he walked onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the marchers had been beaten when they first tried to cross. “I don’t endorse anybody,” the mayor muttered.