His attacks on Jews went beyond his “Hymietown” slur. More than that, his illiberal opposition to the Western canon and grifting racial hucksterism did great damage.
Being an aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as one of his companions in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968—the day the leader of the civil-rights movement was shot and killed—conferred a certain status on Rev. Jesse Jackson that amounted to secular sainthood. Parlaying that clout into being the first serious African-American candidate to run for president—with his two ultimately unsuccessful, but impactful, campaigns for the Democratic Party nomination in 1984 and 1988—gave him a place in history that nothing else he did or said could take away.
Those résumé items are the main reasons why Jackson, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 84, has remained an icon for African-Americans. The vast majority of the electorate may not have been interested in having him as their president, and many—both inside and outside of the black community—had long ago tired of his egotism, grifting and soaring, yet self-referential rhetoric. Yet they were ready to acknowledge him as a key figure in a civil-rights movement that, after a decade of strife, would eventually be regarded by most Americans as a cause whose success brought great pride. That explains why coverage of his passing in the mainstream media wasn’t merely respectful but almost universally laudatory.
And yet, the chorus of praise for him being sung this week by a wide array of leaders and institutions is largely misplaced. Jackson should rightly be accorded his place in history. However, his legacy is not so much a triumph of the effort to roll back disgraceful, discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws. That was primarily achieved by other, greater people.
