The day Jesse Jackson faced off with the Klan in Connecticut
Let his name be a blessing and an inspiration.
After the Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil-rights leader, died Tuesday, reporters in Connecticut began digging up his ties to the state.
Jackson led a huge march in 1991 from Bridgeport to New Haven to Hartford to raise awareness of the economic plight of cities. He was arrested while supporting striking Yale workers in 2003. In 2006, he helped launch the political career of our current and very popular governor. But it was in 2000 that he perhaps had his biggest impact.
Fourteen years prior, Connecticut had made the birthday of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr a holiday. All but one of the state’s 169 municipal governments was in compliance. (We don’t have county governments.) That town was Wallingford. Back then, it was nearly all-white.
It’s hard to say which came first, Jesse Jackson or political will. But all these years later, most people seem to believe that the civil-rights leader’s anticipated visit pushed then-Governor John Rowland into signing special legislation that forced Wallingford to obey state law.
But that wasn’t what Nutmeggers remembered most after his death. It was a moment during the April 27, 2000, rally in Wallingford, where he was met, according to the Times, by “some 500 supporters and about a dozen members of white supremacist groups, some wearing white sheets and waving large Confederate flags.” One of the klansman confronted Jackson.
And Jackson tried to lift his mask. The AP:
Jesse Jackson said his confrontation with a white supremacist group opposed to Wallingford, Conn., observing the Martin Luther King holiday shows there is “unfinished business” in the struggle for civil rights.
Jackson came to Wallingford on Wednesday to applaud a new state law that forces the town to observe King Day. Wallingford has been the only town in the state to keep offices open on the holiday.
A group of about 10 people waving Confederate flags showed up to protest Jackson’s visit.
"Those who are waving these flags show us there is unfinished business,” said Jackson, who offered to shake hands and tried to peek under the face mask of one man who was dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb but was rebuffed.
The confrontation occurred before Jackson attended a church service and led a march of more than 500 people to town hall for a rally.
That's what we're remembering here in Connecticut, and it's not hard to see why. It takes guts to look a hateful man in the eye and try to unmask his cowardice. Such moments of courage should inspire us all, as we face more masked men who are much more dangerous than some putz dressed in bed sheets. These days, the klansman work for the regime.
While I have your attention …
The Editorial Board is a newsletter about politics in plain English for normal people and the common good. As such, it will always be open to all.
It is, however, not free to make. It takes time to research and write four or five pieces a week. It takes time to put it all together. And I got bills to pay!
So please consider rising above the free list today (check your status at the bottom of this message) and subscribing. It's just $9 a month. So cheap! Save 31 percent by subscribing for the year. If you're already subscribing, please consider a tip!
Thank you! –JS
