By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
(Trice Edney Wire) – As we mourn the heavenly departure of Rev. Jesse Jackson, so many of us have reason to celebrate him. As President of The Black Educators in Los Angeles years ago, I met Jesse Jackson. Both of us were young at that time, and I was among his greatest admirers. My friends and I first met him at our regular Saturday meetings, where representatives from many Black organizations were in attendance. Few national leaders missed our meetings since before coming to Los Angeles, they knew we were a serious group working for civil and human rights, as they were from back East and down South. We were blessed to have the leader of Operation Breadbasket, Operation Push, US and ultimately the Rainbow Coalition as friends.
After moving to Atlanta, Overseas and Michigan, I moved to Washington, DC to attend Howard University School of Law. When Rev. Jackson began his run for President of the United States, I was ready to spend my last dime supporting his campaign—and every time his campaign requested a donation, I sent it. Ultimately, a close friend told me, “You don’t have to send money every time a candidate asks.” I was still in law school, but I thought his campaign depended on my little donations! When he was speaking anywhere, I tried to be in the crowd! He was speaking everywhere!
In 1986, I’d been out of law school for a short time. I helped to register so many people to vote. Many were for the first time ever! I’d been inspired to run for office in my home state of Louisiana. I got off to a great start, and after a short time, it was being reported that my race might be the key to victory over 4 white males in the race! At that time, not many women were running for anything, and no Black man or woman had run for Congress from Louisiana, but I had been inspired by Congressman Mervyn Dymally to run, and soon thereafter, Rev. Jesse Jackson honored my race with;2 visits to campaign with me. Many other VIPs joined Jesse, and while many members of Congress were winning their races with less than 50,000 votes, I received nearly 100,000—but that wasn’t enough for those who worked to make sure I didn’t win. After being announced as the potential winner, AIPAC got involved because my Campaign Manager was an Arab American, with no mention that my Issues Director was a Jewish American. My race was called back with my coming up short by less than 1%.
Rev. Jackson was among the first to call and congratulate me for running. He began calling me Louisiana’s Congresswoman in Exile. He and others often reminded me that, but for my running, many Black people or women may never have been inspired to run. Since that time, many have been running and winning!
Women all over the state began running and winning. Even white women in Louisiana gave me their “Joan of Arc Award”. Black women have won as mayors of the three largest cities in Louisiana, plus a lot of small towns. Jesse convinced me that starting a trend is just as important as those who win. He started a trend by running for President, and years later, we were blessed with President Barack Obama. A few months ago, I saw him in Talladega, Alabama, and he was still reminding me of being in the race. I had in my hand my recent book about Dick Gregory, one of my other heroes, and one of his friends. He took the book (without my permission) and gave me a big hug, acknowledged my work, and I did the same for him! He knew he was one of my heroes. He will always be SOMEBODY to me!
