Jesse Jackson: Crash Course Black American History #44

hi i'm clint smith and this is crash course black american history and today we're learning about reverend jesse jackson and operation push operation push was an organization founded in 1971 as a supplement two and a continuation of the civil rights victories of the 1960s as well as a response to the war on poverty the watts rebellion of 1965 and the subsequent rebellions that followed the assassination of dr martin luther king jr push attempted to fill a void in largely urban poor and predominantly black centers this leader the reverend jesse jackson worked directly with dr martin luther king jr he was a powerful important voice during the civil rights movement but the organization itself as well as reverend jackson occasionally struggled with public image issues so today we'll be discussing this landmark organization its founding its successes and its downfall let's start the show [Music] the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s saw important strides made for black americans part of a global movement of black pride post-colonial struggles and a burgeoning sense of diasporic solidarity the civil rights movement was marked by both social and legislative victories in the u.s some of these victories included the civil rights act of 1964 which banned various forms of discrimination and employment institutions and privately owned public accommodations and the voting rights act of 1965 which prevented state and local governments from denying citizens equal access to voting rights the 1960s also marked the era of president lyndon b johnson's great society which saw significant legislative and social policy pushes to reduce poverty nationwide it was the largest social reform agenda in modern history it included the establishment of a job corps of 100 000 disadvantaged men a community action program that allowed people to tackle poverty in their own communities plans to help unemployed people find sustainable work money for farmers to purchase land the fair housing act of 1968 and help for unemployed parents entering the workforce johnson's great society also established some landmark programs that still exist today such as medicare and medicaid and head start but johnson's great society failed to address some key issues in the fight to eliminate poverty some said his policies didn't go far enough for example many wanted johnson to include a universal basic income or guaranteed jobs for the unemployed additionally the great society didn't address the issues that emerged from global capitalism such as large corporations shifting their operations to low-wage markets which caused a decline in the number of stable and well-paying manufacturing jobs that for so long had been the catalyst of upward mobility from millions of people in america and some of the great society programs were racially biased they increased opportunities and access for white families but didn't address the needs of poor black americans because the spread of integration had led to so-called white flight where white families would move out of integrated neighborhoods this also caused the more informal form of segregation that had lasting impacts public schools with predominantly black students received relatively little federal funding meaning they had fewer resources which exacerbated already existing racial inequality in response to the shortcomings of government sponsored social programs black people nationwide continued the freedom struggle they achieved most success by founding small grassroots organizations from within the community that can meet their needs in a more community-specific way one successful example of this type of grassroots organizing that eventually snowballed into a nationwide organization was operation push an acronym that originally stood for people united to save humanity and that was later changed to people united to serve humanity the organization was founded by the reverend jesse jackson in 1971 with a specific mission to improve the economic conditions of black americans in chicago let's learn a little bit more about reverend jackson in the thought bubble reverend jesse jackson was born jesse burns later adopting the name jackson from his stepfather on october 8 1941 in greenville south carolina growing up in the segregated south he excelled in school and sports jackson's forays into political organizing and social activism began in college where he became heavily involved in local civil rights demonstrations in 1964 he graduated from north carolina agricultural and technical state college in greensboro north carolina with a bachelor's in sociology after graduation he traveled to selma alabama to march with dr king and became active in king's southern christian leadership conference the sclc was and remains to this day a landmark civil rights organization alongside the sclc jackson helped coordinate civil rights protests across the south in 1966 king appointed jackson as the first director of operation breadbasket in chicago operation breadbasket was an offshoot of the sclc which aimed to get more jobs for black americans by organizing various levels of boycotts against companies that refused to hire black employees two years later jackson was with king when he was assassinated on april 4 1968. jackson was just 26 years old within a couple years jackson exited from the sclc under a cloud of accusations from other leaders namely ralph abernathy that he was using the organization for his own personal gain he formally resigned in 1971. thanks thoughtbubble that same year in 1971 jackson founded operation push although the organization struggled financially in its early years push was able to raise money from notable black americans push sought to improve the economic and social conditions of black people domestically and internationally to that end they hosted a number of direct action campaigns had a weekly radio broadcast and gave out awards to prominent black people in the u.s and abroad jackson saw his work as part of what would become known as a rainbow coalition a phrase originally coined by black panther leader fred hampton which referred to a group of diverse americans working together to fight for justice for all one of the cornerstones of push's agenda was a weekly saturday morning rally at the hyde park headquarters of push in chicago intentionally scheduled for saturdays so that jackson a self-proclaimed country preacher would not have to compete with the other ministers on sundays the rallies were an important source of jackson's influence in the community operation push established several key social programs that looked to improve the circumstances of black people in the chicago community and founded push excel a program that focused on keeping black youth in school and helped them with job placement after graduation the program also included lobbying organizations and major corporations with a heavy presence in the black community pushing them to adopt affirmative action programs which included getting companies to commit to hiring more black people and people of color as executives and supervisors it also worked to get those same companies to include black suppliers wholesalers and distributors to their purchasing list push held vigils and boycotts to win these important employment concessions and even managed to get several major corporations to sign voluntary agreements to hire more black people increase businesses with minorities donate money to black colleges and other organizations and to increase ads in black publications but despite these important gains push suffered under the weight of public scrutiny jackson's high profile image in the community and his role as the face of push meant that criticism of jackson was difficult to disentangle from the criticism of the organization as a whole in 1983 jackson launched his presidential campaign and formally resigned from his leadership position within the organization in 1984 after he ended his presidential campaign jackson formally launched a new organization the national rainbow coalition which sought equal rights for all americans the new group positioned themselves as a counter to president ronald reagan's economic agenda known as reaganomics reaganomics called for widespread tax cuts a decrease in spending for social programs and deregulation of domestic markets many black leaders believe that reagan's policies contributed to unemployment and economic instability in black communities jackson's speech at the 1984 democratic national convention was like the organization he would found called the rainbow coalition and look to unite disenfranchised people from all walks of life poor whites black people latino people young people asian americans native americans disabled people small farmers and so many others jackson said in his speech quote america is not like a blanket one piece of unbroken cloth the same color the same texture the same size america is more like a quilt many patches many pieces many colors many sizes all woven and held together by common thread the white the hispanic the black the arab the jew the woman the native american the small farmer the business person the environmentalists the peace activists the young the old the lesbian the gay and the disabled make up the american quilt even in our fractured state all of us count and fit somewhere in 1996 jackson's new organization the national rainbow coalition and jackson's old organization operation push merged to form a new hybrid organization the rainbow push coalition the merger continued the mission of the two previous organizations which sought to protect and gain civil rights through economic and educational initiatives and to promote peace and justice worldwide new organization also pushed aggressively for black involvement in the new emerging sectors of american society like wall street telecommunications and silicon valley the rainbow push coalition is still operational and continues to promote these ideals today jackson's vision served as a bridge from the victories of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to today extending the mission of social activists and allies his work addressed the political and economic disparities in the black american community as well as in communities of color across the world despite its many permutations and pitfalls over the years with operation push and his successor organization show us is the strength power and potential of grassroots organizing not only within the black community but through communities nationwide as jackson himself noted it is important to hold your head high stick your chest out you can make it it gets dark sometimes but the morning comes keep hope alive operation push shows the way that the energy of the civil rights movement moved changed and evolved beyond the 1960s and helped shape the landscape of contemporary activism thanks for watching i'll see you next time crash 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Channel: CrashCourse

Views: 67,683

Keywords: John Green, Hank Green, vlogbrothers, Crash Course, crashcourse, education

Id: C2vl1mixqLU

Length: 11min 31sec (691 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022