Jackson Charges Bush Is Insensitive to Minority Educational Aspirations

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who watched as his mother-in-law received a college degree Sunday at the age of 61, used the occasion to accuse Vice President George Bush of “gross insensitivity” to the educational aspirations of minorities.

Jackson, citing news reports of remarks Bush made on May 5 to Latino high school students in East Los Angeles on the need for blue-collar labor, suggested that Bush try his hand at shining shoes rather than running for President.

The vice president told students at Garfield High School that, while education is necessary, young people “don’t have to go to college to achieve success.”

“We need those people who build our buildings, who send them soaring to the sky,” Bush said. “We need the people who run the offices, people who do the hard physical work of our society.”

More Funds for Education

Jackson, whose campaign speeches include a pledge to double the federal education budget, said Sunday that if he is elected President, he will help Bush find just such a job.

“Bush said, in his gross insensitivity, to some Hispanic children a few weeks ago--looking them in their faces: ‘College is not necessary for success. We will still need people in our society to do physical work,’ ” Jackson noted.

“If I’m successful, that’s exactly what he will be doing next year,” Jackson told a cheering crowd of black students and their families at the Hampton University commencement here.

“Let him wait tables. Let him caddy. Let him shine shoes. You keep going to college.”

Jackson took time out from his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to attend the graduation and receive an honorary degree from Hampton, before flying to New Jersey for three campaign appearances. The New Jersey and California primaries are both on June 7.

Met With Dukakis

Later in the day, Jackson met for nearly half an hour in East Orange with the Democratic front-runner, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, before the two addressed a New Jersey state Democratic convention.

The one-on-one meeting, which aides to the candidates said was impromptu, was the first face-to-face session between the Democratic rivals in more than three weeks, a period in which Jackson has sharply escalated his criticism of Dukakis.

But Dukakis, asked about the meeting at a news conference after his speech, refused to say whether he and Jackson had discussed those remarks. “I prefer to keep the conversation private,” Dukakis said. “We talked about lots of things. We’ll continue to talk. . . .” Dukakis had harsh words for Bush and the Reagan Administration. He scoffed at a claim by Bush that American competitiveness would be undermined by Democrat-backed trade legislation that would require employers to give workers 90 days’ notice of a plant’s closing.

“And that from an Administration that wants to give (Panamanian strongman Manuel A.) Noriega 120 days’ notice and a plea bargain before they make him leave,” he said.

Jackson told reporters that the 30-minute meeting with Dukakis was an “amiable” one that covered a “range of topics.”

Among the graduating class on Sunday at Hampton University was Gertrude Davis Brown, the mother of Jackson’s wife, Jacqueline. Brown received her BA degree in social work.

Jackson, garbed in gown and mortar board to receive his honorary degree, embraced his mother-in-law on stage and described her as an inspiration to him to “run against the odds” as the first major black presidential candidate.

He said Brown worked as a maid in a Veterans Administration hospital, starting work each day at 4 a.m., to rear five children and put four of them through college.

At the age of 49, she went back to high school in Hampton, near the Newport News naval base, then went on to college, taking one or two night courses a year.

“She is very disciplined about this, very determined,” Jackson said later in a conversation aboard his campaign plane.

He said Brown now wants to earn a master’s degree in social work. Her ambition, he said, is to open a home for unwed mothers.

Staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this story from East Orange, N.J.