{"id":1712,"date":"2019-08-01T09:29:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/?page_id=1712"},"modified":"2019-08-01T09:29:05","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T09:29:05","slug":"jesse-jackson-on-the-rainbow-coalition-1984","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/29-the-triumph-of-the-right\/jesse-jackson-on-the-rainbow-coalition-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a groundbreaking\nyet unsuccessful campaign to capture the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination for president,\nJesse Jackson delivered the keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National\nConvention in San Francisco. He had campaigned on the idea of a \u201crainbow\ncoalition,\u201d a political movement that drew upon the nation\u2019s racial, religious,\nand economic diversity. He echoed that theme in his convention speech.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 This is not a perfect party. We\nare not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission:\nto feed the hungry; to clothe the naked; to house the homeless; to teach the\nilliterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over\nthe nuclear race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are gathered here this week to\nnominate a candidate and adopt a platform which will expand, unify, direct, and\ninspire our Party and the nation to fulfill this mission. My constituency is\nthe desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the\ndespised. They are restless and seek relief. They have voted in record numbers.\nThey have invested the faith, hope, and trust that they have in us. The\nDemocratic Party must send them a signal that we care. I pledge my best not to\nlet them down.
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nIf, in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of temper,\ntaste, or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain, or revived\nsomeone’s fears, that was not my truest self. If there were occasions when my\ngrape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive\nme. Charge it to my head and not to my heart. My head — so limited in its finitude;\nmy heart, which is boundless in its love for the human family. I am not a\nperfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I\ndevelop and serve, be patient: God is not finished with me yet.
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our party is emerging from one of\nits most hard fought battles for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination\nin our history. But our healthy competition should make us better, not bitter.\nWe must use the insight, wisdom, and experience of the late Hubert Humphrey as\na balm for the wounds in our Party, this nation, and the world. We must forgive\neach other, redeem each other, regroup, and move one. Our flag is red, white\nand blue, but our nation is a rainbow — red, yellow, brown, black and white —\nand we’re all precious in God’s sight.
\n
\nAmerica is not like a blanket — one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color,\nthe same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches,\nmany pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.\nThe white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native\nAmerican, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace\nactivist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up\nthe American quilt.
\n
\nEven in our fractured state, all of us count and fit somewhere. We have proven\nthat we can survive without each other. But we have not proven that we can win\nand make progress without each other. We must come together.
\n
\nFrom Fannie Lou Hamer in Atlantic City in 1964 to the Rainbow\nCoalition in San Francisco today; from the Atlantic to the Pacific, we have\nexperienced pain but progress, as we ended American apartheid laws. We got\npublic accommodations. We secured voting rights. We obtained open housing, as\nyoung people got the right to vote. We lost Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, Bobby,\nJohn, and Viola. The team that got us here must be expanded, not abandoned.
\n
\n\u2026 Old wine skins must make room for new wine. We must heal and expand. The\nRainbow Coalition is making room for Arab Americans. They, too, know the pain\nand hurt of racial and religious rejection. They must not continue to be made\npariahs. The Rainbow Coalition is making room for Hispanic Americans who this\nvery night are living under the threat of the Simpson-Mazzoli bill; and farm\nworkers from Ohio who are fighting the Campbell Soup Company with a boycott to\nachieve legitimate workers’ rights.
\n
\nThe Rainbow is making room for the Native American, the most exploited people\nof all, a people with the greatest moral claim amongst us. We support them as\nthey seek the restoration of their ancient land and claim amongst us. \u2026 The\nRainbow Coalition includes Asian Americans, now being killed in our streets —\nscapegoats for the failures of corporate, industrial, and economic policies.
\n
\nThe Rainbow is making room for the young Americans. Twenty years ago, our young\npeople were dying in a war for which they could not even vote. Twenty years\nlater, young America has the power to stop a war in Central America and the\nresponsibility to vote in great numbers. Young America must be politically\nactive in 1984. The choice is war or peace. We must make room for young\nAmerica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We must be unusually committed\nand caring as we expand our family to include new members. All of us must be\ntolerant and understanding as the fears and anxieties of the rejected and the\nparty leadership express themselves in many different ways. Too often what we\ncall hate — as if it were some deeply-rooted philosophy or strategy — is\nsimply ignorance, anxiety, paranoia, fear, and insecurity. To be strong\nleaders, we must be long-suffering as we seek to right the wrongs of our Party\nand our nation. We must expand our Party, heal our Party, and unify our Party.\nThat is our mission in 1984.
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Jesse Jackson,\nAddress before the Democratic National Convention, July 18, 1984. Available\nonline via C-Span (https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?124437-1\/democratic-national-convention-day-2<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a groundbreaking yet unsuccessful campaign to capture the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination for president, Jesse Jackson delivered the keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. He had campaigned on the idea of a \u201crainbow coalition,\u201d a political movement that drew upon the nation\u2019s racial, religious, and economic diversity. He echoed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":821,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1712","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1713,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1712\/revisions\/1713"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/reader\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}