FINALLY WE AGREE WITH REV JACKSON

Jackson: 'King was a very hated man'

January 17, 2006

BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL Staff Reporter

It was a Martin Luther King Day breakfast like hundreds of others that take place all across the country on the civil rights leader's birthday.

An adorable youngster, Justin Bonds, recited a King speech.

White political leaders struggled with the words to the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing.''

Many jockeyed for a picture with a rising political star -- in this case, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Political rivals schmoozed the crowd as they stood only a few feet apart: Gov. Blagojevich and state Treasurer and GOP gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka.

Downplays talk of rift



But the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose King Day scholarship breakfast drew the city's most powerful to a ballroom of the Hilton Chicago on Monday, reminded reporters how King was considered at the height of the civil rights movement -- decades before his benign visage was used to promote winter sales at stores.

"Dr. King was a very hated man,'' Jackson said, noting that King was undermined by both the Johnson White House and Mayor Richard J. Daley, and attacked in editorials across the country, including in the minority press. Many black ministers disassociated themselves from King, fearing political ramifications, he said.

Jackson also parried a question about the new book At Canaan's Edge, in which historian Taylor Branch wrote of bitter arguments between Jackson and King, and King's accusations of self-aggrandizement by Jackson.

Consider the era, Jackson said: Hotel maids were paid to spy on civil rights leaders, their phones were tapped and the government co-opted workers in the movement by putting them on the payroll.

FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover despised King, who was widely viewed as an agent provocateur, if not a communist, Jackson said.

"All that stuff was part of the climate,'' he said.

Jackson acknowledged there were arguments, but described their differences as "creative tension'' and "democratic debates.''

"We often had challenging meetings,'' Jackson said.

He pointed to a speech King gave just before he died, mentioning Jackson by name, as evidence that they were in accord.

Branch never interviewed him for the book, Jackson added.

Obama, recently returned from Iraq, told reporters he supports a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops. "Over the course of this year, more and more responsibility has to be transferred to the Iraqis, and we have to essentially recognize that unless Shia, Sunni and Kurd come together, we can't hold that country together militarily,'' he said.

Coretta Scott King absent



In Atlanta, Coretta Scott King was absent from ceremonies for the first time in nearly four decades.

The civil rights leader's widow, recovering from a stroke and heart attack that partially paralyzed her, stayed home and watched the ceremonies on television.


Jackson: 'King was a very hated man'