Jackson Battles On for Affirmative Action

Calling opponents of affirmative action “dream busters,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Sunday stepped up his drive to restore affirmative action in California and compared Gov. Pete Wilson to Southern governors of the 1960s who stood in schoolhouse doors to block racial integration.

“Just as the governor in Arkansas stood in the schoolhouse door to block educational opportunity with a state’s rights initiative and he was challenged by [President Dwight] Eisenhower, just as [Alabama Gov. George] Wallace stood in the school door to block educational opportunity and [President Lyndon] Johnson had to challenge him, now Wilson stands in the school door,” Jackson said.

Wilson strongly backed Proposition 209, approved by voters in November 1996, which struck down affirmative action preferences for women and minorities in California in the award of state government contracts and in admission to state universities.

Since late last year Jackson has denounced the ballot measure while seeking to build a coalition to restore affirmative action. On Sunday he brought his campaign into two predominantly liberal congregations--All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills. He argued that Proposition 209 not only was a “dream buster” for minorities, but that it didn’t make good business sense for the state.

“More educated people gives us a stronger work force, a more diversified work force and a higher-volume consumer market,” Jackson said after his sermon at the Pasadena church.

He added: “People must not get the impression that the radical resegregation of schools and reduction of opportunities is the wave of the future and can’t be stopped. This attempt to resegregate schools based upon class and reduced opportunity is not good for America.”

Inside the church, Jackson compared the American dream to a big tent.

“There were always those who wanted to keep the dream for themselves and lock others in the margins. . . . There has always been a struggle at the gate of the tent,” he said.

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After the speech at the synagogue, Jackson said he had spoken Saturday with President Clinton. Jackson said the conversation revolved around issues the president raised in his State of the Union speech.

The subject of Monica Lewinsky, Jackson said, did not come up. Jackson also said that the subject did not come up last Sunday when he joined the Clintons to watch the Super Bowl.

“We were aware of it,” Jackson said. “I was not there to discuss that matter. I was there to pray with him, for his spiritual strength, and that he might be focused while under tremendous duress.”