It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Walter Mondale walked away with the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 1984. But for thousands of delegates and local citizens at the San Francisco gathering, the enduring memory was Jesse Jackson at the podium in Moscone Center, proffering one of the greatest speeches in American political history.
Jackson, who died on Tuesday at age 84, finished in third at the convention, but his July 17, 1984, “rainbow coalition” address has echoed through the generations — a progressive message that his political party has aspired to and San Francisco arguably adopted in the 42 years since.A relieved Mondale wasn’t sure he would get Jackson’s support. The nominee told the Chronicle that Jackson, age 42 at the time, gave “one of the best speeches of our time.”“Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow — red, yellow, brown, black and white — and we’re all precious in God’s sight.
“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 a common thread. “The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the business person, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt.”
“I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant, doing my best against the odds. Be patient. God has not finished with me yet.”
“Our time has come. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint. Our time has come. Our faith, hope and dreams will prevail. Our time has come. Weeping has endured for nights, but now joy cometh in the morning.
“Our time has come. No grave can hold our body down. Our time has come. No lie can live forever.”
The speech launched Jackson politically, and he had an even stronger showing in 1988, finishing second behind Michael Dukakis with 1,023 delegates, more than double his 1984 total. San Francisco surged even further to the left in the years that followed, electing Willie Brown, its first Black mayor in 1996. The city hasn’t elected a Republican supervisor or mayor since.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved. Powered by Vanilla
Comments
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn