Jackson Booed at Stock Exchange

The Rev. Jesse Jackson gave a jaunty thumbs up and rang the opening bell Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange, but hundreds of workers on the trading floor responded with a loud chorus of boos.

Jackson smiled and applauded his surly audience, seemingly unruffled by the unexpected greeting.

“The cheers and the jeers are part of the American tradition,” he said later. “We are, after all, in the center of free enterprise and free exchange.” He said exchange officials told him the response might have been related to his having been a few seconds late in ringing the 9:30 a.m. bell.

But several floor traders said they were taken aback by the apparently spontaneous hostility, noting that VIP visitors usually are ignored or given polite applause.

“I thought it was kind of a low blow to boo him. I’ve never heard anything like that before,” trader Scott Olsen said after Jackson left.

Jackson, who is making a four-day visit to New York City, is scheduled to meet today with Mayor Edward I. Koch and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. Jackson emphasized that the subject of the meeting would be voter registration, and that he was not seeking a reconciliation with Koch, who harshly criticized Jackson during New York’s April presidential primary.

Picture in Business, Page 3.