Jackson Kicks Off Democrats’ Voter Drive

A three-week-long Democratic voter registration drive kicked off Saturday with a pungent call from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who demanded that the unregistered heed the sacrifices made over time by people desperate to vote.

At a rally near the Washington Monument, the civil rights leader recalled the march on Washington led 29 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during which black participants were not allowed to use bathrooms or stay in hotels along the way.

“You simply cannot come to the plate in the big game and drop the bat and expect to hit the home run,” said Jackson, who will lead the national drive. “For the right to vote, the price we have paid has been much too much.”

Much as the day rang with remembrances of struggles to win the right to vote, it also reverberated with the tension between Jackson and the man who asked him to lead the voter registration drive, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton.

Clinton appeared on stage with Jackson, but he and his campaign seemed ambivalent at best about the joint event. The candidate’s schedule had him appearing at the Black Family Reunion Celebration on the mall, and did not mention the voter registration element of the day.

And when he came to the stage at the celebration, Clinton initially did not mention the registration drive, leaving the microphone before he came back to briefly introduce Jackson as its leader. Clinton offered no details about the voter registration drive, although aides said later he was supposed to do so.

“For the next three weeks, we’re going to go around the country and try to galvanize every person in this country who isn’t registered and tell them their vote counts just as much as the rest of us,” Clinton told the crowd.

Jackson, he said, “has agreed to lead a crusade across the country for the next three weeks to help to register the people of America to vote.”

The relationship between Clinton and Jackson has played out like street theater in recent days. On Monday, Jackson announced his decision to take part in the voter registration drive, a move that followed much negotiation by Democratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown.

Two days later, the men met on a stage at a Baptist convention in Atlanta, where Clinton at first snubbed Jackson. During Clinton’s subsequent speech, Jackson fidgeted and acted generally bored.

Afterward, Jackson grabbed Clinton’s arm and engaged him in an earnest onstage discussion. Then he sidled with Clinton toward the restroom, where they conversed for a few minutes before emerging separately. Jackson said then that they had decided to meet again this week.

The Clinton-Jackson event was one of 300 gatherings in 30 states meant to kick off the three-week voter registration program. Clinton spokeswoman Avis Lavelle said the lineup included registration booths at college football games throughout the day.