Undampened Spirits

The rain may have put a damper on the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s planned speech during Monday’s “Save the Dream” march, but it certainly didn’t douse the spirit of the nearly 2,200 people that police estimated attended the event.

“This is my march,” a proud Jean Hall-Wood said, hunkering under her umbrella.

Hall-Wood, 52, who works at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said she joined the march because she is concerned about what she sees as a systematic curtailing of the rights of minorities and the poor in California.

“It shows that we are going to move together,” she said. “They are putting pressure, and we are not going back.”

Monday’s rally was the third installment of Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition-sponsored “Save the Dream” marches against cuts in affirmative action programs and other perceived attacks on women, minorities and the poor.

Last year, thousands marched with Jackson across the Golden Gate Bridge to protest Proposition 209, which banned government sponsored affirmative action in the state.

The “they” Hall-Wood referred to were public figures like Gov. Pete Wilson and UC Regent Ward Connerly, the moving force behind Proposition 209. Both men were frequently mentioned Monday in the speeches of the gathered community leaders and politicians.

“Pete Wilson is the governor of the most perverse state in this country,” said David Sickler, a union leader who is mounting a campaign against Proposition 226, which calls for labor organizations to get permission from its members individually before using dues for political contributions.

The topics ranged from welfare reform to union rights to the alleged marginalization of minority youths, but Jackson said all the subjects boil down to a common theme.

“When you limit labor, limit job training for the young, you limit growth,” he said in a telephone interview after the march.

Jackson said the combined effect of measures like Propositions 187, 209 and 226 is to weaken minorities and women and further marginalize people who constitute the majority of the population but do not have much political power.

Jackson said another rally is planned for San Diego, but no date has been set. Eventually, Jackson hopes to form a California Rainbow Coalition to focus on issues that concern the state’s minorities.

Monday’s march began near the Coliseum, wound through downtown under threatening skies all morning and ended at the Ronald Reagan State Building.

At the stage, Jackson was joined by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), Brotherhood Crusade leader Danny Bakewell and civil rights icon Rosa Parks, among others.

“In the rain, we fight for justice,” Jackson said as a light drizzle began to fall. “Let nothing break your spirits.”

Jackson’s speech had to be cut abruptly at about 1:15 p.m., 45 minutes before its scheduled time, when a downpour scattered the crowd. But the civil rights leader was upbeat about the overall event.

“In a strange way it was good,” Jackson said over the phone. “It strengthened our resolve to see people [even with the threat of heavy rains] came in the thousands.”