Village Voice

Jesse Jackson Raids the Graveyard—On Al Sharpton’s Watch Ground Hog by Peter Noel

eizing the opportunity to eclipse political rival Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, once scorned by Mayor Rudy Giuliani, stood shoulder to shoulder with him at Ground Zero last week, wiping out in 15 minutes of 'shameful grandstanding' Sharpton's eight-year battle to portray the mayor as hostile to African Americans.

Black and Latino leaders incensed by Jackson's power play are "discussing ways of punishing him," says Dedrick Muhammad, field director of Sharpton's Harlem-based National Action Network. Jackson's audacious show of solidarity with Giuliani, arch-nemesis of the city's black-led civil rights movement, inflamed his already combustible relationship with Sharpton. Several of Sharpton's aides have denounced Jackson's unannounced visit. "This was a cowardly ambush for the purpose of shameful grandstanding," Muhammad charges. Jackson denies his trip to New York City was political. "Eighty of my friends, waiters who worked for Windows on the World, perished," he says. "My grief transcends everything else. My feelings for my lost friends were the issue. It had nothing to do with the mayor."

Jackson says that an American Red Cross board member invited him to inspect Ground Zero. "They offered to escort me to the site, but when I got there the mayor was conducting the tours, just as he had done for others," he insists.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001