Jesse Jackson, preacher, civil rights change-agent, and presidential candidate, has died at age 84.<\/p>\n
Jackson made a swing through Fort Worth while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. Jackson made three Texas stops on a two-day swing in late April in advance of the May election.<\/p>\n
A day after visiting Dallas, Jackson arrived in Fort Worth for a speaking engagement at Mount Olive Baptist Church on Evans Avenue. He was greeted with a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Jackson urged the adoption of automatic voter registration, arguing that existing procedures were structured in ways that suppressed participation among minorities and low-income citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt age 18, you ought to be automatically registered to vote,\u201d Jackson told an enthusiastic, predominantly Black audience. \u201cThey know you\u2019re a citizen \u2014 you\u2019re automatically eligible for the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said eliminating registration barriers was essential to boosting democratic participation.<\/p>\n
He also sharply criticized Texas\u2019 primary format at the time, which required voters to cast ballots in a daytime preference poll and then return in the evening to take part in a delegate caucus.<\/p>\n
Jackson described the Texas system as \u201cthe most convoluted\u201d in the nation and said it was \u201cdesigned to discourage us from voting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pointing to turnout rates, Jackson noted that a smaller percentage of Americans vote compared with citizens in other major Western democracies, attributing the disparity in part to cumbersome registration requirements.<\/p>\n
He also took aim at the Democratic Party\u2019s national delegate selection process, observing that although he had captured 18% of the vote in this year\u2019s primary contests, he has secured only 7% of the delegates.<\/p>\n
Students from Our Mother of Mercy Catholic school were among those present, according to the Star-Telegram.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we came is because we love Jesse Jackson,\u201d said Cheryl Peavy, then a 14-year-old. \u201cWhen he\u2019s speaking, I listen. \u2026 When he speaks about black people, it gets in my blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he should be president,\u201d said Monica Barnwell, 13. \u201cHe\u2019s a good man. He gets my vote \u2026 well, my Mama\u2019s vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson went on to finish third in the Texas primary, behind Walter Mondale, the eventual nominee, and Gary Hart. Jackson ran a second time in 1988, but it doesn\u2019t appear as if he made a Fort Worth stop.<\/p>\n
In West Dallas, he warned children who surrounded him \u201cnot to put cocaine in your membrane or dope in your vein.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re too special for that,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re God\u2019s children, and God didn\u2019t make trash.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his visit to Mount Olive Baptist Church, Jackson went to lunch at Drake\u2019s Cafeteria on East Rosedale before heading off to Houston for more stumping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson, preacher, civil rights change-agent, and presidential candidate, has died at age 84. Jackson made a swing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,2419,2862,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-168766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-john-henry","13":"tag-top-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}