Civil rights leader and activist Rev. Jesse Jackson met with two dozen community leaders in Indianapolis recently at the Julia Carson Government Center.
The intention of the meeting was to highlight solutions to challenges in urban communities across the country and register more individuals for the upcoming Rainbow/PUSH Coalition national conference.
Seated at a table and flanked on both sides by Black elected officials, educators, pastors and entrepreneurs, Jackson encouraged the Indianapolis community to become involved in his National Reclaim Our Youth Crusade. The crusade involves both students and parents signing pledges to educational excellence.
“We have to make going to school ‘the thing’ again and dropping out unacceptable,” said Jackson.
Jackson cited statistics indicating that dropout rates are too high in many urban school districts, especially among African-American males.
“We’re organizing parents to become more involved with their child’s school and meet with teachers,” said Jackson. “That parent/teacher collaboration will reduce dropouts and increase rates of attendance and graduation. We expect Indianapolis to take a leading role in ending the dropout crisis.”
As part of the National Reclaim Our Youth Crusade at least 10,000 parents in each major city is encouraged to sign a pledge that commits them to taking their child to school, meeting and exchanging contact information with teachers, picking up report cards, reviewing test scores and homework, taking their child to worship services and providing three hours of study time at home each night.
“We’re asking parents to turn off the TV a few hours,” said Jackson.
In their pledge, students commit to “choose life and give peace a chance” by abhorring drugs and violence, attend school daily, strive for excellence in all that they do, respect the authority of parents and teachers, study three hours each night without interruptions, and complete all school work.
Jackson’s meeting was a follow up to a visit made in April when he spoke to students at Northwest High School. He is scheduled to be the speaker for Indiana Black Expo’s Ecumenical Service on July 10.
Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White is excited about Jackson’s initiative.
“In IPS we know that we must have greater parent participation to ensure that we really improve the preparation of our young people for the future,” said White. “We can’t do this alone so I really appreciate this campaign and we intend to make it a very active part of our goals.”
The remainder of the meeting was used to discuss other pressing issues.
Jackson, who had spent a few hours visiting inmates at Terre Haute Correctional Facility, said the justice system and community organizations must help inmates find employment.
“People who serve their time should have jobs comparable with their abilities,” he said. Jackson also mentioned the national recession, saying it is caused by home foreclosures initiated by banks that need more “transparency” and stronger loan regulations.
“The increase in home foreclosures is driving our recession, so the government needs to help reconstruct loans, not possess homes,” he stated. “When a home forecloses then the houses in the neighborhood lose their value, the tax base goes down, and cities and counties must bear the burden of lost revenue.”
In a positive observation Jackson noted that thanks to the passage of legislation such as the Voting Rights Act the United States is now a nation where Barack Obama, an African-American, can win a major party’s presidential nomination.
“Our nation has become a more perfect union in that regard,” said Jackson, who himself made historic runs for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.
When asked if he had been offered a position in a possible Obama administration, Jackson replied that right now he is only focused on helping the Illinois senator get elected with “voter registration, education and coordination.”
The Rainbow/PUSH coalition, a non-profit economic and educational opportunity organization established by Jackson in 1971, will hold its 37th annual convention June 28 to July 2 at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Hotel in Chicago. For more information or to register log on to www.rainbowpush.org or call (773) 256-2794.
Jackson said his organization remains relevant today because it still has the “drive to address needs” for people all over the nation.
