{"id":21291,"date":"2026-11-06T14:47:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T14:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=21291"},"modified":"2026-11-06T14:47:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T14:47:05","slug":"jesse-jackson-the-last-interview-and-other-conversations-with-an-introduction-by-al-sharpton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/06\/jesse-jackson-the-last-interview-and-other-conversations-with-an-introduction-by-al-sharpton\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson: The Last Interview and Other Conversations with an introduction by Al Sharpton"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Melville House Publishing\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>
\n$20.99\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>
\n175 pages<\/em><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

Business as usual.<\/p>\n

Nothing new here. Same old, same old. Yeah, sometimes, the status quo is good: an even-keel feels safe, even relaxing, smooth as glass. Ten again, there\u2019s no forward movement on a calm river. You need a little shaking-up, as in the new book Jesse Jackson: The Last Interview<\/em> with an introduction by Al Sharpton,<\/strong> or nothing ever changes.<\/p>\n

Even as a young man, Jesse Jackson was \u201ca force of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was a speaker at a young age, and could command crowds with his voice alone. He built Operation Breadbasket for Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conerence, to organize funds and volunteers. Later, he took Operation PUSH to Chicago, and held rallies on Saturday mornings to mobilize the Black community there. He was a mentor, a man of God, and he was willing to take on any injustice he saw.<\/p>\n

He was also an in-demand interviewee in the years after Dr. King\u2019s assassination.<\/p>\n

In November 1969, he spoke to Arthur Kretchmer for Playboy <\/em>magazine. He said then that there was a \u201cwar\u201d between Black America and white America, and that this country seemed to be under a \u201cpolice state\u201d for Black men. He spoke against the elimination of Black studies in colleges and universities, and he railed against a governmental \u201clack of understanding\u201d of problems facing Black businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perverted idea of manhood coming from the barrel of a gun,\u201d Jackson said, \u201cis what keeps people from understanding nonviolence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Tony Brown and Diahann Carroll for Black Journal<\/em> in January 1975, Jackson blamed America\u2019s economic woes on \u201cthe superrich not being taxes properly\u201d and the \u201cmonopolies\u201d created by it.<\/p>\n

In 1983, he told Ronald Smothers of The New York Times <\/em>that \u201cthe Justice Department is not committed to justice.\u201d In 1989\u2019s Eyes on the Prize II<\/em>, he talked about the real possibility that we \u201cwill have an African American as nominee of a party, indeed, as president of the United States of America\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Do all these things sound familiar, like they were torn from the headlines just yesterday?\u00a0 That deja vu<\/em> feeling will hit again and again as you read Jesse Jackson: The Last Interview<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It helps, for further clarification and framing, to refer to the introduction by the Reverend Al Sharpton. There, Sharpton writes about the day he met Jackson, and the many times their lives and work intersected. He underscores the importance of Jackson\u2019s activism and his work for Civil Rights over the years \u2013 and that\u2019s where this book becomes amazing.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s words, as gathered here, make him seem like a man with a crystal ball, peering at the problems of the future, to offer guidelines for them. Readers may be astounded that the old saw is correct: the more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n

This slender collection may make you look for more of Jackson\u2019s interviews, so hone your search skills and get to work. In the meantime, Jesse Jackson: The Last Interview<\/em> is a most unusual book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Melville House Publishing\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 $20.99\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 175 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor Business as usual. Nothing new here. Same old, same old. Yeah, sometimes, the status quo is good: an even-keel feels safe, even relaxing, smooth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-21291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21293,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291\/revisions\/21293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21291"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=21291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}