POLITICS 88 : Jackson Speaks at Alma Mater : Advises Graduates to ‘Never Surrender’ Dreams

GREENSBORO, N.C. â€”  The Rev. Jesse Jackson returned Sunday to the college where he got his initiation into the civil rights movement, and warned a graduating class that included two of his sons: “Never concede or surrender your dreams.â€�

Although the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University commencement address was not supposed to be a political event, Jackson lapsed into his standard stump speech, aiming particularly harsh barbs at Vice President George Bush.

Jackson described Bush as having “constipation of the brain, a deficit of ideas and diarrhea of the mouth.� The comment came in response to Bush’s characterization of Jackson on Friday as a “hustler from Chicago.�

Jackson told the cheering students that his experiences at A&T; had laid the foundation for his history-making quest for the presidency.

Bucking the System

It was at A&T--then;, as now, a black college--that Jackson got his first taste of politics and launched a career of bucking the system.

As student body president in 1963, Jackson was arrested for blocking traffic in front of City Hall as he led his classmates in a protest against segregation.

The police had charged him at the time with inciting a riot but Jackson described his actions as “simply standing up for dignity.�

“We were encouraged at A&T; to sit in, stand tall and fly high,� he said. “And so, when I’m running for the presidency, I’m just acting out my lessons.�

Wearing a graduation gown, Jackson described a new set of struggles for the class of 900 students to undertake a quarter-century later.

“You take this baton another lap,� he said, citing goals that varied from the peaceful development of outer space to curing cancer.

Two Sons Graduate

Among the graduates were two of Jackson’s five children--23-year-old Jesse Jr., who graduated in three years with high honors, and Jonathan, 22, who finished college with honors in 3 1/2 years.

Seated with the rest of Jackson’s family was another of its college students: Jackson’s mother-in-law, Gertrude D. Brown, who will receive her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in Virginia next weekend at the age of 61.

“You are among the elite of the world,� Jackson told the graduates. But he warned: “You must fight the odds to win. . . . When I compete with (Massachusetts Gov. Michael S.) Dukakis and Bush, that’s Harvard and Yale.�

Jackson dismissed the media and political analysts who have written off his chances for winning the Democratic nomination. “With your help, I’m taking the lid off your dreams,� he said. “As I get closer to the White House, there’s no more impossible dream.�

Bringing In New Voters

“You should never concede or surrender your dreams,� he said. “Limited dreams are self-inflicted wounds.�

Jackson also took credit for bringing 2 million new voters to his party during his first race for the White House in 1984--broadening the party’s base of racial minorities, he said, and making it possible for the Democrats to pick up Senate seats in Southern states where they were unable to draw a majority of whites.

Now, he said, is the time for the party to repay him with its support.

“The New South politics were born of reciprocity, not of generosity,� he said. “We voted for them, and now we expect mutuality. . . . We will rise together.�