“Amen! Amen! Rejoice!” These words repeatedly sounded throughout Lebanon Baptist Church Worship Center sanctuary in Saluda on Sunday as a capacity crowd awaited the arrival of Jesse Jackson, a nationally-known Baptist minister, civil rights activist and former presidential candidate.
Inside the church, music from an electric guitar, drums and an electronic keyboard produced a foot-stomping rhythmic rush of energy that reached from ceiling to floor, from head to toe, as the crowd of mostly African-Americans passionately moved together with the music and words of church leaders.
When Rev. Jackson arrived, that energy was lifted to another level and the crowd responded as he shook hands with everyone on the front row of the church, stepping with a rhythm of his own. No one seemed to care that he was 30 minutes late.
Robert Sutherlin, co-pastor of Lebanon, said, “I’ve told everyone you were coming and many people have said, ‘Jesse Jackson is not coming to Saluda!’ Well, praise the Lord, here he is! I told those people who did not believe he was coming, ‘I knew he was coming because George Gresham told me so.'”
George Gresham
Jackson was invited to speak at the church by Middlesex native George Gresham, who resides in New York and is president of the largest labor union in the nation, Hospital Workers’ Union 1199, which consists of over 400,000 workers.
Gresham also was the force behind having nationally-known minister Al Sharpton speak at Lebanon last year.
Gresham lived in Middlesex as a child and attended Rappahannock Central Elementary School at Cooks Corner before moving with his family to New York.
“I want to introduce you to a lifelong hero for all of us and a living legend,” Gresham told the audience. “His sacrifice opened doors for many of us. If it were not for what Jesse Jackson did in 1984 and 1988 (run for the presidency of the United States) there would be no President Barack Obama,” said Gresham.
“The Rev is a man I deeply admire and a great legend. When I asked him to come to Saluda and speak here at Lebanon, he said, ‘Yes!’ He said he wanted to come on the 50th anniversary of his first arrest [in the civil rights movement]. Now, some of us wouldn’t want to celebrate our first arrest, but the Rev has always been arrested for things that we would all be proud of—standing up for justice,” said Gresham.
“Rev. Jackson has been a leader in making sure this country lives up to its promise for all people. He has walked more picket lines than anyone I know and he does it with pride, dignity and grace,” said Gresham. “So, I asked for you to please give a great Saluda, Virginia welcome to the Rev. Jesse Jackson!”
Sermon
Jackson stood to a roaring applause and, with his voice booming from the pulpit, he led the chant, “Say it with me. I am somebody!”
The audience responded, “I am God’s child.”
The audience repeated what Jackson said in a rhythmic tone: “My heart can believe it. I know I can achieve it. Red and yellow, brown, black and white. We are all precious in God’s sight. Everybody is somebody! Everybody is somebody! Everybody save the children! Stop the war! Peace now! Save our home now! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!”
The audience roared as Jackson raised his arms above his head and spread his fingers as wide as they would go.
When the noise subsided, Jackson said his wife was from Newport News and his son attended the University of Virginia. “It’s good to be home in Virginia and this is sort of a homecoming for me too.”
As his sermon progressed, it took a political slant when he said, “We want Congress to raise the debt ceiling but we also want Congress to work to raise the poor and middle class up off the floor.
“There’s a big debate in Washington about us,” he said. “Congress has been meeting about a month now trying to decide whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. They’ve raised it 90 times before. When the performance in front of the camera is over, they will raise the ceiling and pay down the debt and maintain the trust in our country. But, they need to raise the floor because the ceiling is getting higher and harder to reach for most Americans.
“Can you imagine another tax cut for a rich young ruler and a cutting off medicare for Mary and Joseph?” he asked.
Jackson criticized American companies that have taken their manufacturing jobs to China and other countries to save on labor costs and produce higher profits. “The Chinese have not taken our jobs. Don’t blame them and don’t be mad at them,” he said. “It was the big corporations who decided to leave this country. They took our jobs, and what do we do? We reward them by giving them tax cuts. We reward them by giving them government subsidies. They are causing a crack in the floor of America and we continue to reward them.”
Jackson expressed concern over wasted money. He said the money spent for the war in Iraq was unnecessary because there were no weapons of mass destruction found and no indication the country was a threat to the United States.
“We sent a million people to capture Osama bin Laden and it only took 20 to finish the job,” he said as the congregation roared.
“We bailed out the banks expecting the money to go back into the economy, but where did the money go? The wealthy are given tax cuts and want the rest of the America to pay off the debt by cutting Social Security, student loans, Medicare and Medicaid. Where did the money go?
“We must lift the floor before we fall beneath the floor,” Jackson continued. “We are all God’s children and it is not just about raising the ceiling, it’s about raising the floor.
“Everybody needs the safety net of Social Security,” he said. “Everybody needs the protection of Medicaid and Medicare. This nation was built from the foundation up—not from the ceiling down.”
Jackson said he recently was in Washington, D.C., and accidently walked upon a Tea Party rally. “People started coming toward me and talking to me and one guy said he was opposed to big spending by the federal government. I told him, ‘That’s okay, everybody has an opinion.’ I asked him where he was from. He said he was from West Virginia, which is the most federally endowed state in the nation. I asked him how he got here. ‘I came right down the interstate highway,’ he told me. That interstate is paid for by 90 percent federal funds and 10 percent state.
“I said, ‘Are you on Social Security and Medicare?’ And he shook his head yes. And I asked him, ‘Are you are against big spending by the federal government and a member of the Tea Party?’ ‘Yes sir, I am,’ he said.”
Jackson then asked the audience, “What am I missing? That man couldn’t breathe without the government!”
Jackson went on to say that life in America for African-Americans and other minorities is better today than ever before. “When you watch a football or basketball game it’s about uniform color, not skin color,” he said.
“It’s about direction and not complexion! It’s more about region—not race. We are learning to live together.
“It’s been 50 years since I was arrested for going into an all-white library to read a book,” he said. “At a reunion of the group [that was arrested], someone said to me that it must have been difficult for you to have to go to jail. I said, ‘Not as difficult as it was for those who arrested me to learn that they had done something wrong.’ We knew we were right. It was difficult for those who arrested us because they had learned a bad lesson well. It’s difficult to unlearn a bad lesson. Segregation was learned so well by so many.
“When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 it was a joy and journey. We finally felt like we had arrived in America,” said Jackson. “In the 1960s, many black folks couldn’t vote in the South and white women could not serve on a jury. We were able to change all that and we are going to bring this country back by putting Americans back to work and continuing to educate our children.”
The service ended with the song “Let the Light Shine Down” as the choir and Jackson moved to the rhythm of the music, the spiritual grace and style of the congregation could be felt throughout the sanctuary.
The song appropriately concluded with “And now I’m happy all the day!”
With the press
Jackson ended the service by pointing down to the front row where the press was sitting and said he wanted to see all of those with the press after the service.
Members of the congregation were photographed with Jackson as the press waited. He later came in to meet with the two members of the press that stayed. He asked if there were any questions and then spoke of the concern he has with the Tea Party movement.
He said President Clinton was able to eliminate the debt deficit when he was in office, but today’s political climate in America has made this much more difficult.
He referred to the Tea Party members as having a “kamikaze” mentality, willing to let this country fall financially before willing to “realistically” work to bring down the national debt.
Perspiration was pouring off Jackson after his performance in the church. As he talked, he changed his shirt and T-shirt, continuing to preach politics and voicing concern for the future of this country.
He asked two reporters at the church what papers they were with. When he learned the weekly Southside Sentinel and the Rappahannock Times were the only two papers represented, he said, “Write your story and put it on the wire.”
It almost sounded as if Jesse Jackson was running for President of the United States again.
