Chicago Politics

Book Discussion: Shakedown - Exposing The Real Jesse Jackson 

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"It was a shotgun ordination..."

"Exposing the real Jesse Jackson is about one of the most Politically Incorrect activities one can undertake in this country" - G. Gordon Liddy

Jesse Jackson and The Black Boule, Agents & Provocateurs

from Spike EP on Vimeo.

"It was a shotgun ordination" - G. Gordon Liddy

"Didn't he preach today...?" - The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan on Jesse Jackson at the Million Man March, 1995.

"Jesse's position on ordination was that he needed to be a Reverend in order to move around freely..."

Pastor passes torch of gospel choir

May 30, 2010 By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune
The day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in 1964, construction crews rolled off the lot of the church's future sanctuary, leaving a steel frame on the corner of Princeton Avenue and 45th Place.

For eight years, that steel frame stood as a symbol of the clash between the Rev. Clay Evans, pastor of Fellowship, and then-Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who would not forgive the pastor for hosting the civil rights leader and sought revenge by hampering efforts to complete the new church.

But by the time Daley's son became mayor decades later, Evans had risen to prominence in the pulpit, gospel music and politics. His distinctive, raspy voice and gospel choir had earned international acclaim with millions of albums sold. Instead of fighting the younger Daley, Evans became one of his closest allies, bridging the gap between City Hall and clergy and empowering the black church.

On Sunday, in a swan song of sorts for the elder pastor, Evans, 84, held a ceremony to mark the passing of Fellowship's leadership to his successor, the Rev. Charles Jenkins, during a live recording of Jenkins' first album at the choir's helm. Jenkins said the album — titled "Pastor Charles Jenkins and Fellowship Live: The Best of Both Worlds" — bridges the two generations of ministry on Chicago's South Side and brings Evans' legacy full circle.

It was while working as a porter at one of Chicago's renowned music clubs that Evans discovered his voice. Instead of starting a band, he became a preacher who started a choir.

Ordained in 1950, Evans and five others soon founded Fellowship, or "The Ship" as it's known by parishioners. Evans quickly earned a reputation for his booming voice in the pulpit and choir. In 1965, the church's choir recorded the first of three dozen albums.

At least 81 aspiring ministers studied under Evans, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whom Evans ordained in 1965, about the same time Jackson left seminary to march with King.

A year earlier, when other churches bowed to political pressure and declined to welcome King to their pulpits, Evans rolled out the red carpet, Jackson said, but not without consequence.

Richard J. Daley blocked permits and persuaded bankers to halt their loans for the new church building. Other pastors underwrote the rest of the construction, which was completed by 1973.

Jackson credits Evans for shifting the mindset of African-American congregations in Chicago and in turn altering the way politicians viewed the institution of the black church. Before that time, churches were more concerned with "personal salvation over social emancipation," Jackson said. Evans galvanized ministers to reach out to the community, he said.

Charles Bowen, an aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley who helped him win his first election, recalls his surprise given the history when Evans approached him in 1990 to serve as an intercessor between City Hall and Chicago's African-American clergy.

"He felt Mr. Richard M. Daley should be given a chance and should not carry the weight of his father," said Bowen, the former executive assistant to the mayor who retired in 2004. Bowen brokered the donation of lots for churches to develop in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Though some frowned on the arrangement, others savored the irony of the alliance between Evans and the younger Daley.

Evans said he believes in restoring and preserving legacies. It's the reason he gives for endorsing the re-election bid of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger this year despite accusations of corruption. Evans thought that Stroger, like Richard M. Daley, deserved a chance to transform the family legacy.

"That's what we do as ministers," he said. "We wanted to be his physician. The well don't need physicians."

It's also the reason Evans gives for handing over the reins of his church 10 years ago before many of his peers. Evans recognized that many pastors were staying past their prime and tarnishing their legacies by doing so. He didn't want to take away from any of the good he might have created.

"If you can put it into the hands of somebody capable and committed," he said, "it just gets better." "

" In 2007 [Cardinal George] asked Jews to reconsider descriptions of Jesus in the Talmud as a "bastard" in exchange for a softening of traditional Catholic prayers calling for Jews to be converted to Christianity.

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March 20, 1986

2 CONSERVATIVE EXTREMISTS UPSET DEMOCRATS IN THE ILLINOIS PRIMARY

By ANDREW H. MALCOLM, Special to the New York Times

Correction Appended

CHICAGO, March 19— Two followers of the far-right conservative Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., both political unknowns, won election upsets in the Illinois Democratic primary Tuesday. Their victories created chaos in the campaign of the party's gubernatorial nominee, former Senator Adlai E. Stevenson 3d.

How the LaRouche candidates, who employ card tables and battery-powered megaphones at airports and street corners, were able to upset Mr. Stevenson's handpicked regular Democratic nominees for Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State was a matter of speculation.

Mr. Stevenson, whose name has been familiar in the state since the late 19th century when his grandfather was Vice President of the United States, easily won renomination to challenge Gov. James R. Thompson, a Republican who was once United States Attorney. In Illinois primaries candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor appear separately on the ballot. In general elections, the two appear together as a two-person ticket.

Speculation on Stevenson

Mr. Stevenson was reported shocked but calm at the turn of events. There was speculation that he might resign the Democratic nomination to avoid association with the LaRouche forces. This has not happened before in Illinois, and there is no apparent legal provision for filling such a vacancy.

In the Chicago City Council races, the contest for power between Mayor Harold Washington and Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak remained undecided, with two seats apparently won by the Mayor's candidates and three by Mr. Vrdolyak's. Two seats were still in dispute this afternoon. [ Page A18. ] Spokesmen for Mr. LaRouche's group, the National Democratic Policy Committee, attributed their candidates' victory to their platform, which opposes the budget-balancing law and favors a laser defense system as well as mandatory screening of all Americans for the disease AIDS. They said their group was more in touch with the concerns of average Illinois citizens.

However, politicians here suggested other reasons: an unusually low turnout of about 25 percent of the 6.1 million registered voters and the relatively unfamiliar names of Mr. Stevenson's candidates, George Sangmeister for Lieutenant Governor and Aurelia Pucinski for Secretary of State. The LaRouche victors were Mark J. Fairchild for Lieutenant Governor and Janice Hart for Secretary of State.

This, the politicians speculated, combined with Democratic overconfidence, lackluster races and rainy weather almost statewide, which held down turnout for all but the most dedicated voters. There were emerging indications, too, that some Republican voters abandoned their party's largely uncontested primary ballot to declare themselves Democrats for the day.

Under Illinois law, voters can change party registration by oral declaration on Election Day. Such crossover voting, which enables supporters of one party to select a weaker opposition ticket or to influence a tight race in the other party, has affected both parties here in past elections.

Mr. Stevenson could undertake a write-in effort or attempt to mount a campaign for Governor under a third-party label. To do this he would have to assemble a slate of candidates for all statewide offices: Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Comptroller and trustees for the University of Illinois. According to Cal Hudson, associate director of the Illinois Board of Elections, Mr. Stevenson would have until Aug. 4 to file such a ticket along with petitions containing at least 25,000 signatures. Cannot Run as Independent

Mr. Stevenson, who nearly defeated Mr. Thompson four years ago in the closest gubernatorial race in state history, cannot run as an independent because the filing deadline for independents was last December. And because his current running mates, Mr. Sangmeister and Miss Pucinski, lost Tuesday, they cannot appear on another party ticket in November.

Mr. Stevenson, long regarded by party regulars as an unpredictable maverick, met with aides today.

''This is insane,'' said Governor Thompson, who is seeking a fourth term. ''It's going to be a very long year.'' The Governor also said the upsets were lessons to all politicians not to take voters for granted.

In Washington, LaRouche spokesmen said they had more than 700 candidates seeking state and local offices in virtually every primary this year. Mr. LaRouche, a 63-year-old millionaire publisher of conservative books and tracts who began his political career as a Marxist, has run for President in 1976, 1980 and 1984, receiving few votes.

In a less colorful election encounter, Judy Koehler, a state Representative from the conservative wing of Illinois's Republican Party, won the nomination to oppose the incumbent, Senator Alan J. Dixon, a Democrat, in November. Mrs. Koehler defeated George Ranney, an executive of the Inland Steel Company.

The incumbent Attorney General, Neil Hartigan, a Democrat, turned back an aggressive primary challenge by Martin J. Oberman, a Chicago alderman. Three prominent Democratic Representatives, Cardiss Collins, Gus Savage and Melvin Price, also defeated primary challengers.

Late today Mr. Fairchild, the victorious 28-year-old Larouche candidate for Lieutenant Governor, invited Mr. Stevenson to join the LaRouche ticket. There was no immediate Stevenson comment.

photo of Mark Fairchild (AP) (page A18); photo of Janice Hart (page A18); photo of Adlai Stevenson 3d (AP)

Two LaRouche Illinois Victories Stun Democrats

March 20, 1986|SCOTT KRAFT and LARRY GREEN | Times Staff Writers

CHICAGO — An upset victory of two candidates backed by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche stunned Illinois Democratic leaders Wednesday and wreaked havoc with the party's plans to capture key state offices, including the governorship, from the Republicans in November.

The victories in Tuesday's election--the nation's first 1986 primary--were the first ever for LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee in a contested statewide election.

Threat to Stevenson

They threatened to derail Adlai E. Stevenson III's hopes of becoming governor in November because Illinois law requires the governor and lieutenant governor to be from the same party and to be elected as a team.

"These people invaded our party," said Cal Sutker, chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party. "They're extremists. They're not in the mainstream of Democratic thought or philosophy and they're objectionable."

At a packed news conference Wednesday night, Stevenson declared: "I will never run on a ticket with candidates who espouse the hate-filled folly of Lyndon LaRouche."

Narrow Victory

The LaRouche-backed lieutenant governor nominee, Mark Fairchild, narrowly defeated the Democratic Party's candidate, state Sen. George Sangmeister.

"We now find ourselves faced with a possibility that radicals--fringe candidates--may fill the lieutenant governor and secretary of state slots on the Democratic ballot," Stevenson said. "These candidates are not remotely qualified. Nor are they Democrats. They are adherents to an extremist political philosophy bent on violence and steeped in bigotry."

The press conference was briefly disrupted when a man identified as an organizer for LaRouche's group peppered Stevenson with questions about efforts to investigate and discredit Fairchild. Stevenson ignored the heckler, who was eventually pushed from the room by Chicago policemen in civilian clothes.

Stevenson added that he was "exploring every legal remedy to purge these bizarre and dangerous extremists from the Democratic ticket."

New Party Possible

He said his options included seeking a recount of Tuesday's vote, a challenge to the candidacies of the LaRouche supporters and the possibility of forming a "New Democratic Party" in time for the November general election.

The LaRouche supporter who won the Democratic nomination for secretary of state, Janice A. Hart, a 31-year-old campaign organizer for LaRouche in Chicago, defeated Aurelia Pucinski, the daughter of a Chicago alderman. In that race, however, Republican incumbent Jim Edgar is expected to win in the general election.

With 99% of the state's roughly 11,000 precincts counted, Fairchild had 331,480 votes to Sangmeister's 310,510. Hart had 370,209 votes to Pucinski's 355,325.

"It's a sad day for the Democratic Party, and I think the public's made a very poor choice," said David Druker, spokesman for the Illinois Democratic Party.

"The Democrats must be in a state of chaos," Republican Gov. James R. Thompson said. "Every politician in the state of Illinois should sit down tonight and say, 'I'm never going to take voters for granted.' You had a fair and free election, and two people lost who never expected to lose."

Thompson aides said that they expected Tuesday's outcome to be a setback for the statewide Democratic campaign.

In Washington, Nicholas F. Benton, a spokesman for La Rouche, attributed the victories to "an unprecedented level of disgust with leaders of both major parties. We've opened the primary season with a stunning demonstration of the new mood of the American people and their support for the kinds of remedies . . . offered by Mr. LaRouche."

AIDS Quarantine Urged

In their position papers, Hart and Fairchild repeated the LaRouche national platform, which calls for, among other things, mandatory testing for AIDS and quarantining those who have the disease, reversal of the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law and a crash program to build a "Star Wars"-type laser defense system. They did not delve into state issues.

The Chicago office of LaRouche's National Democratic Policy Committee held a jubilant news conference Wednesday afternoon, with party spokeswoman Sheila Jones declaring that "the Democratic Party no longer exists except for what we're building right now."

At the conference, Fairchild and Hart promised a campaign against bankers who, they contend, launder drug dealers' profits.

"There will be Nuremberg tribunals set up around the country," Hart told reporters. "Illinois will lead the charge. Traitors will be charged with treason, drug runners will be charged with killing children."

The LaRouche victories had Democratic leaders nationwide worried. "They've been doing a lot of filing in a lot of elections, hoping that lightning would strike. And lightning apparently has struck in Illinois," said Terry Michael, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

"They are nothing but the fringe of the kook fringe in American politics," he added. "They have been trying to confuse themselves with the national Democratic Party for years. So far, they've been a minor thorn in our side."

Results Called 'Incredible'

Michael called it "incredible that this could have occurred at offices of the level of lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Obviously, we're going to have to do an education job, making people aware that these people are filing for public office."

"It must have been the Halley's comet factor. This came out of nowhere," said a stunned Tom Serafin, campaign aide for Pucinski. He suggested that voters may have confused Janice Hart with former Democratic presidential contender Gary Hart.

None of the candidates for secretary of state and lieutenant governor campaigned hard enough to become well known by voters statewide, and on the ballot they were listed simply as candidates on the Democratic ticket. Bob Benjamin speculated that voters were more comfortable voting for "familiar"-sounding names like Hart and Fairchild than for names like Sangmeister and Pucinski.

He said also that an analysis of the vote showed that, in districts where Hart and Fairchild appeared first on the ballot, they ran well, suggesting that voters did not pay much attention to whom they were casting ballots for.

The primary victory of Fairchild, a 28-year-old former electrical engineer from Rockford, Ill., who now is a full-time LaRouche political organizer, put him on the Democratic ticket as Stevenson's running mate in the race to unseat incumbent Thompson, who was unopposed in the Republican primary.

Sangmeister, Stevenson's choice for lieutenant governor, is a three-term state senator.

"Obviously, this was an enormous loss for us," said Terry Stephan, deputy press secretary for the Stevenson campaign.

Stevenson is the son of Adlai E. Stevenson, who was a United Nations ambassador and twice unsuccessful candidate for U.S. President, being defeated by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The younger Stevenson ran for governor in 1982 in a bitter campaign against Thompson. The election was not decided until almost two months after the voting was completed, when the Illinois Supreme Court declared Thompson the winner by 5,000 votes.

Stevenson spokesman Bob Benjamin called Fairchild's nomination "a freak occurrence. Everybody took the election for granted and everybody was surprised this morning--including Fairchild."

Stevenson could remain on the ticket with Fairchild, but, if he wants to run without Fairchild, he "would have to withdraw as a Democrat and run as a new political party candidate," said Ron Michaelson, executive director of the Illinois Board of Elections.

To do that, Michaelson said, Stevenson would have to put together a statewide slate and file a petition with 25,000 signatures by Aug. 4. Under state law, it is too late for Stevenson to run as an independent.

Chicago Results Confused

Meanwhile, Chicago voters remained confused Wednesday over the results of a special City Council election that pitted the Democratic machine against Mayor Harold Washington's independent political movement.

By Wednesday evening, the outcome of two of seven council races was still uncertain, and politicians said it may take days, perhaps weeks, before it is clear whether Washington or his foe, Democratic machine boss Edward R. Vrydolak, holds the reins of political power in the nation's third most populous city.

What was clear was that Vrydolak, who has used his majority of 29 councilmen to thwart Washington's programs for the city, now commands only 25 councilmen and that Washington's council strength has increased to 23 from 21. The key to controlling power lies in the two undecided races.

In one race, it appears certain that a final vote tally will require a runoff election on April 29. In the second, considered the pivotal election, only nine votes separate the Washington-backed candidate from the Vrydolak-backed campaigner. That election could be decided today, when election officials count the ballots from one precinct that forgot to take a tally when polls closed Thursday night.

But, more likely, the outcome of the race will be decided in a court challenge or in a runoff election on April 29.

Times researcher Wendy Leopold in Chicago and staff writers Jeffrey A. Perlman in Orange County and Dave Palermo in the San Fernando Valley contributed to this report.

LaRouche Democrats Seek to Build on Illinois Victory

March 22, 1986|LEE MAY and ROBERT SHOGAN | Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Promising to roll tanks down city streets, wipe out AIDS through mandatory testing and eliminate the new Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law, two supporters of ultraconservative Lyndon LaRouche tried Friday to fashion their Illinois primary victory into an international movement.

In a contentious news conference, the two candidates, Mark Fairchild and Janice A. Hart, castigated the national Democratic Party, Illinois gubernatorial candidate Adlai E. Stevenson III and the media--and, at the same time, called on all three to join them in pressing their views in the United States and abroad.

Embarrassing a lackadaisical Illinois Democratic Party, Fairchild and Hart last Tuesday defeated two mainstream Democrats and, in the process, frustrated Stevenson, who has vowed not to run with the two "LaRouche Democrats," whose organization is called the National Democratic Policy Committee.

'Applauded Globally'

But their victory "is being applauded globally," Hart said at the news conference. An intense, combative woman who described herself as a "hell-raiser and a troublemaker," Hart likened herself to Joan of Arc and vowed that LaRouche policies will "save our nation and our Western civilization."

During the session, Hart repeatedly refused to answer questions, including whether she knew how many counties are in Illinois. But that did not impede the flow of her rhetoric.

Stand on AIDS

Hart said acquired immune deficiency syndrome is "sweeping" central Africa and "is going to engulf all of Western civilization" unless everyone is tested and those with the disease are quarantined for treatment.

Once elected, Hart said, she would work to overturn the Gramm-Rudman law because it will make cities suffer massive cuts in education and transportation.

Turning to crime issues, she said: "You bet I'm going to roll those tanks down State Street," a main thoroughfare in Chicago. "I'm going to put every drug pusher behind bars."

At one point, she urged the media to report fairly and to "cut out all the baloney," the "misinformation" and "gibberish" as a way of helping her rid the nation of "this traitorous influence that's currently running the show today."

Fairchild said Stevenson "should get off his sour-grapes attitude" and "get together and talk policy" to guarantee a Democratic victory in November.

Some Democrats said the Illinois victory never would have happened in the first place if Democrats in that state had shown a bit more leadership.

"My guess is, they didn't pay enough attention to what was happening," said Jim Ruvolo, Democratic chairman in Ohio, adding that in Chicago, the stronghold of the state Democratic Party, leaders were absorbed by the longstanding feud between Mayor Harold Washington and old-line party boss Edward R. Vrdolyak.

Nevertheless, the Illinois victory has sent shudders through the Democratic Party in Washington and elsewhere, although no LaRouche candidate has ever won elective office anywhere.

Democratic National Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. said he is urging party officials around the country to monitor candidates for Democratic nominations at all levels to weed out "extremist candidates" for "legitimate" Democratic voters.

Terry Michael, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said the party does not want to "raise their profile" by paying too much attention to LaRouche Democrats, "but, at the same time, if the public becomes aware that they are really kooks, then that will help prevent the same thing from happening again."

National Democratic Party officials said the next primary test will come May 3 in Texas.

LaRouche supporters in California say Illinois results are no fluke. Page 26.