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The NCAA News -- June 21, 1999

Jackson's message to participants: 'You can't separate athletics from politics'

ORLANDO, Florida -- When the Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed the student-athletes at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida, he was scheduled to speak for about 20 minutes. His comments ran an hour and a half.

What was perhaps most amazing was not that the organizers welcomed his departure from the schedule but that the student-athletes sat captivated and engaged the entire time.

As a former student-athlete himself, Jackson could relate to the student-athletes in exceptional ways. He spoke to them about the history of civil rights and how the founding of the United States had not meant equal opportunity for women and ethnic minorities.

He also pointed out how Native Americans had been the victims of ethnic cleansing. He spoke about how Hispanics, Chinese-Americans and Haitians came to the United States and played a role in its growth.

"Because of the way our country was founded, African Americans, Hispanics, people of color and women did not have equal opportunity," he said. "African-Americans were considered, at best, hyphenated Americans, and considered, in the Constitution, three-fifths of a human being.

"So this idea of racism and gender inequality and even acts of slavery and acts of ethnic cleansing are in our roots. Every generation must work to heal those breaches, to close those gaps to make this a more perfect union. To not know that (history) is to simply assume that life began for those African-Americans on a slave plantation, began for those Native Americans in a cowboy movie, and that the Hispanics and Asians came lately. That is not the reality of who we are as Americans."

Jackson also told the student-athletes that they would be well served to adopt a more global mentality. "You want to be global athletes and be on global television, and gain favor as world-class athletes. To do that, you must appreciate the full humanity of that world," he said. "I challenge you to get beyond one language and one race and one side of town in your orientation."

Jackson also pointed out that minorities' success in sports may have a lot to do with the fact that the rules of the game are color blind. "Whenever the playing field is even and the rules are public and the goals are clear, we do well," he said. "But when it comes to who becomes coach, athletics director, team owner, team lawyer and a whole range of other positions, those things are decided behind closed doors where the rules are not so clear."

Jackson encouraged the student-athletes to be students of history and politics.

"You may be saying to yourself, 'Reverend, why do you raise all this political stuff?' " he asked. "Simple. Because student-athletes are students first. You can't separate athletics from politics or from public policy.

"This year Tennessee played Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl for No. 1. You have to know that prior to 1964 it would have been illegal for those teams to have taken the field -- illegal. The Blacks would have been at Tennessee State; the whites would have been at Knoxville at the University of Tennessee. The Blacks would have been at Florida A&M; the whites would have been at Florida State. Both would have been good football teams, but neither could have been No 1.

"But when the law changed, it became a chance for Blacks and whites to find common ground."

-- Kay Hawes