Jesse Jackson says NAACP must help save auto industry

[Bozita]

Source: AP

Jesse Jackson says NAACP must help save auto industry
by Corey Williams | The Associated Press
Sunday May 03, 2009, 5:00 PM


DETROIT - Civil rights activist and Operation PUSH founder the Rev. Jesse Jackson says helping Detroit's auto industry is part of the NAACP's new role.

Jackson says during a Sunday afternoon media conference that blacks are disproportionately suffering in the current economic downturn and car companies' failures.

He is to give the keynote address later at the 54th Detroit NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund dinner at Cobo Center. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says the event is its largest annual fundraiser and draws 10,000 people each year.

President Barack Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., gave the keynote speech last year. Ex-President Bill Clinton spoke in 2007.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2009/05/jesse_jackson_says_naacp_must.html

[Ian David]

1. NAACP = National Association for The Assembly of Car Parts? n/t

[Purveyor]

2. Go away Jesse...just go away. Your time has passed. eom

[marshall]

9. Trying to remain relevant

Sometimes no news really is good news.

[No Elephants]

3. Wanting to help the unemployed is outdated?

[LiberalFighter]

4. UAW President Walter Reuther and Martin Luther King during Civil Rights era

"To help him, Reuther gave King the use of an office in Solidarity house, UAW headquarters. His office was located on the fourth floor, if I recall correctly," said Bluestone."King used it while he was planning the march in Detroit and the March on Washington that took place the next month."

Reuther,"Bluestone said, "happened after the march on Washington in '63. Reuther was giving his speech at the foot of the Washington Monument; he was the only white person who spoke that day. I was backstage when I overheard a conversation between two black women who were active in the movement. One said to the other, 'Who's that white guy?' The other one said, "Don't you know who that is? That's Walter Reuther. He's as good a man as Martin Luther King."

Bluestone said, "later at the hotel, when I told Reuther what I had overheard, he was so overwhelmed he got a little teary eyed."

Reuther marched alongside King many times during the '60s, including the march in Birmingham, Ala., where police used dogs, fire hoses and other inhumane tactics before beating and arresting many of the marchers. King was among the religious leaders arrested that day. King's stay in the Birmingham jail sparked national attention and brought him support from around the world. Yet, it was his friend, Walter Reuther, who bailed King out of jail.

Source

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Jesse is big on lofty words and poor in execution. Lets see what he actually does, if anything

[creeksneakers2]

6. It doesn't say what Jackson can do to help the auto companies

Probably because there is nothing Jackson can do.

[JVS]

7. Yeah Jesse!

[Kokonoe]

8. Maybe he can speak for the same workers

that he helped to get the jobs, that are now retired keep the pensions they earned.