Jesse Jackson was More than a Civil Rights Leader

Jesse Jackson Was More than a Civil Rights Leader

By Joel D. Joseph, publisher of Jesse Jackson's

book on the death penalty

I had the great honor to work with Rev. Jesse Jackson for many years. I first met Rev. Jackson in 1992 when I was considering publishing Who Killed Martin Luther King? the autobiography of James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King. I asked Rev. Jackson if he would write a forward to the book supporting Ray's claim that he did not assassinate Martin Luther King. Rev. Jesse Jackson agreed to write the forward despite facing the wrath of many of his fellow civil rights leaders. Later, however, the entire King family supported James Earl Ray's claim of innocence.

Rev. Jackson was with Dr. King when King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Jackson knew that J. Edgar Hoover, then Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had Dr. King on his enemy's list. In his book, James Earl Ray named Cartha DeLoach, Deputy Directo of the FBI as the assassin of Dr. King. Despite being accused of murdering Dr. Martin Luther King, Mr. DeLoach never filed suit challenging this alarming allegation.

Before publishing James Earl Ray's book, I spent a day with him at the Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in Nashville, Tennessee. I asked him more than 400 questions to verify his innocence. I also personally interviewed an FBI agent who was present in the FBI's Atlanta Office when Dr. King was assassinated. The Atlanta Office was the headquarters of the team monitoring the movements of Dr. King. The FBI agent told me that the office cheered and several agents said, "We killed Zorro (FBI's name for Martin Luther King), we killed the son of a b*tch."

Jackson also met with James Earl Ray ten years after the assassination. Jackson was not afraid to take a controversial view and gave support to the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King even though many in the Black community opposed it. Rev. Jackson had the moral courage to seek justice for all, even someone who had been accused of killing a civil rights icon.

The Death Penalty

I worked for more than a year with Rev. Jackson on his book Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty. He was against the death penalty primarily for religious reasons and felt that "Thou shall not kill" applies to the government as well as to individuals. In addition, the death penalty has been used disproportionately against African Americans and other people of color. He took particular aim at Texas where death row was long and filled with African Americans. In addition, the Innocence Project has documented hundreds of innocent prisoners who were given the ultimate penalty.

Jobs

Rev. Jackson believed that one of the most important civil rights was to have a job paying a decent wage. Jackson's organization People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) was established in 1971 to improve the economic conditions in Black communities. The organization used direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts and other methods to help protect Black homeowners, workers and businesses. Jackson also supported the organization that I founded, the Made in the USA Foundation, because he felt that workers needed to be proud of what they were making. A disproportionate share of manufacturing jobs are held by African Americans.

Personal Thanks

Rev. Jackson was one of the few advocates who supported me personally when I had a dispute with the Maryland bar. Others were afraid of confronting the bar, but Jackson was not. I will always be personally grateful for Rev. Jackson's support. Rev. Jackson did not care that I was a white lawyer, he supported me because it was the right thing to do. Rev. Jackson believed in justice for all citizens no matter what their color or religion.