Jesse Returns From Somewhere Over Rainbow Coalition

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 5, 2001 | by John Elvin

The Rev. Jesse Jackson's voluntary leave of absence from the limelight lasted all of three days. The ink hardly was dry on stories about how he was dropping out of sight when fresh headlines announced, "Jackson Returns to Public Life." Bill Clinton and eccentric late-night talk-show host Art Bell couldn't match this guy's moves even if you crossed them with the Energizer bunny.

However, Jackson's use of funds from his nonprofit organizations to provide benefits for the mother of his out-of-wedlock child may spark investigations that should give him second thoughts about a comeback. The Chicago Sun-Times welcomed him back into the public arena with a story on how the activist reaps millions of dollars in contributions by threatening boycotts and protests against corporations involved in sensitive deals. In but one of many instances, the story notes that when telecommunications giants prepared to go before the Federal Communications Commission in 1998 seeking approval of megamergers, Jesse vowed to raise a ruckus. "Jackson negotiated with the companies and extracted donations to his charities and multimillion-dollar contracts for minority-owned businesses, including contracts with companies that have ties to Jackson family members. Then Jackson endorsed the mergers and they were approved."

Many of the other deals spelled out in the article involve pressure put on corporations involved in multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions to make deals worth millions to Jackson and his friends and business partners. Jesse's sons, Jonathan and Yusef Jackson, became Anheuser-Busch distributors after their father threatened a "This Bud's a Dud" protest of the products. "No bar or restaurant [in a sizable sector of the city of Chicago] can buy Anheuser-Busch products from anyone but the Jacksons," the article reports. "This includes hotels, nightclubs and Wrigley Field."

One of the organizations scrutinized in the article is Jackson's Wall Street Project, which collects $15 million annually in corporate donations for his nonprofit groups. The Wall Street Project also arranges "concessions" by big corporations to minority businesses. The Wall Street Project most recently was in the news in early February when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., delivered the keynote address at a gathering of that group.