Whether rallying for cheaper education opportunities or workers’ rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson is pleading with Ohio University students to get serious about social change.
During Jackson’s visit to Athens yesterday, he expressed his wish for OU to become the headquarters university for a national student Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the international civil rights organization he founded in 1996.
"It’s time for a change, and you are that change,” he said during an 11 a.m. press conference at the West Portico of Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Auditorium.
Students, faculty and community members came together for the press conference, showing their support for a modern-day civil rights movement. The scene was reminiscent of former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s visit to Athens nearly 50 years before, when he launched his similar War on Poverty campaign.
“It was a battle cry, and people joined with him,” said George Korn, director of telecommunications at OU and adviser to Jackson. “He got serious about accomplishing the things he laid on the table, and things happened as a result.”
In Johnson’s 1964 visit to Athens, he introduced Appalachians – many of whom were suffering from malnutrition and unemployment themselves – to The Great Society, an effort to end their suffering. The 10 percent decrease in Appalachia’s poverty rate that followed gives hope to anti-poverty reformers today.
“We are more able today than ever before to wipe out poverty,” Jackson said in an interview with The Post. “Given how pervasive the issue is, there’s no place for us to start than at ground zero for American poverty and that’s Appalachia.”
The African-American civil rights leader later reiterated why he returns to the region to rally anti-poverty movements.
“It should not remain ground zero,” he said during the morning’s press conference.
"We don’t expect miracles, but the beginning of a serious dialogue on poverty in this country and to force our legislatures to focus on the need,” Korn said. “It’s time to do something.”
Although LBJ-ideals hit their high before today’s college students were born, OU students made up about half of the almost 500-person audience in the Baker University Center Ballroom.
Students filled the room with cheers when Jackson repeated, “It’s time to free students now.” With their encouragement, he proudly presented his support for student loan forgiveness and access to medical care.
Since the 1960s, Jackson has marched his way through the civil rights movement, defending the oppressed of all sorts.
“Race is a factor in almost every aspect of American life. It’s at the core of our being,” he said in an interview with The Post. “There are racial gaps, there are gender gaps, there are class gaps and there’s a crack in the Liberty Bell. Until we weld that bell, we cannot get a true sound.”
oy331909@ohiou.edu
