Jackson Calls for Protest of Florida Vote

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and a group of more than 40 Los Angeles religious and labor leaders Monday called for a week of “moral outrage and indignation” in response to what they said was the disenfranchisement of thousands of Florida voters during the presidential election’s aftermath.

“The issue now transcends Bush or Gore. Every American who is eligible to vote and who votes should be counted. That didn’t happen in Florida,” said Jackson, president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, which organized the event.

After a morning strategy meeting at the Holman United Methodist Church in Jefferson Park, Jackson made the announcement there, flanked by clergy, civil rights activists and such labor leaders as L.A. County Labor Federation leader Miguel Contreras and James Williams, general chairman of the Los Angeles bus drivers union. State Assemblyman Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) introduced Jackson.

Jackson said Rainbow/Push will organize a wave of nonviolent protests beginning Jan. 15, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The form and locations of most of the events are expected to be announced later this week. They are to culminate in demonstrations at federal buildings across the country on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Jackson said the message will be to honor the legality of the election but not its legitimacy. “Legitimacy does not come from the court; it only comes from the voters,” Jackson said, referring to the narrow U.S. Supreme Court decision that stopped hand recounts in Florida and, in effect, ensured George W. Bush’s national victory.

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills, a member of Rainbow/Push, noted that African American and Haitian American voters complained they were turned away from the polls, and that Jewish voters, mostly seniors citizens, said they mistakenly voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan on the infamous butterfly ballot.

The NAACP has requested a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into violations of the federal Voting Rights Act. But Jackson criticized the Justice Department’s public silence during the postelection legal wranglings. “In this crucial hour the Department of Justice was nowhere to be found. The Department of Justice fought for Elian, but it didn’t fight for the disenfranchised voters,” he said, referring to Cuban child Elian Gonzalez.

Jackson spoke bitterly about the U.S. Supreme Court. “What you have today is a coup d’etat led by the court,” he said.

Jackson said Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia should have recused themselves from reviewing the presidential election case because of conflicts of interest. Thomas’ wife, Virginia, is helping a conservative think tank, which is collecting applications for Bush administration jobs, and Scalia’s sons are associated with law firms representing Bush, Jackson noted.

He also read from a Time magazine article that quoted Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as having expressed anger on election night over the initial possibility of a Gore win. “Now the media is starting to investigate the partisanship of the justices,” he said. O’Connor has refused to comment on the accuracy of those quotes.

When asked whether he would respond to Bush’s call to “reach out and heal the nation,” Jackson said it was too early to heal. “We want healing but it’s hard to have healing when there is still glass in the wound. There are too many votes uncounted.”