Photo caption: Representative Jonathan Jackson (D-1st)
For those who may be reflecting on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and what the state of Black America means today, Representative Jonathan Jackson (D-1st) said it signifies that “the fight is not over” for civil rights, equity, and inclusion.
This past Saturday, the nation reflected on the 60th anniversary of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington and what it has meant for the state of Black America since Dr. King’s death and his dream of equality.
“I find it to be an ironic twist of fate from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave in the city of Atlanta, in the County of Fulton, in the state of Georgia, that this is now the epicenter of what’s been over 153-year battle to have our vote counted and secured.”
He was referring to Fulton County’s Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis, who more than a week ago announced a sweeping indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 others accused of allegedly engaging in a criminal racketeering enterprise designed to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Willis had given Trump until August 25 to turn himself into prosecutors in Atlanta; however, he announced he would do so on Thursday, August 24 where he is set to pay a $200,000 bond. On his Truth Social platform, Trump called his prosecution a “WITCH HUNT.” He has denied all wrongdoing.
While Trump continues to attack Willis for charging him under Atlanta’s Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), Jackson applauded her.
“What District Attorney Fani Willis has done is nothing less than remarkable, and we all owe her a great debt of gratitude. She has laid out the conspiracy cases.
“These actors went to Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona to overturn the will of the people and supplant them with non-elected officials, fake electoral representatives,” Jackson said.
“This is a national case, and I sincerely hope that other district attorneys, states attorneys and secretaries of state are cutting and pasting and copying what Attorney Willis has done and bring the case forward. Our vote was being robbed and everyone knows it. She had the courage to go forward and defend us and defend our country,” Jackson told the Chicago Crusader.
Trump has made history in that he is the first president in the nation’s 234 year history to be indicted and not just one time. He has been charged in four criminal cases in just a four-and-a-half-month period.
Trump faces 34 felony counts in New York concerning a $130,000 hush money payment he allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels via his then-attorney Michael Cohen, who was later sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance charges and lying to Congress.
Asked his reaction to the 45 page, 41-count indictment that says Trump and 18 other defendants “unlawfully conspired and endeavored to conduct and participate in a criminal enterprise” after Trump lost the election in Georgia, Jackson said, “I was shocked.
“I had read pieces here and there but now have had the opportunity to read the indictment. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, presumption of innocence, but these facts are glaring.
“There’s audio. There’s video. There is mail. So, I do hope they have a fair day in court, but it is certainly extremely incriminating, what they’ve done in creating a slate of fake electors. We hadn’t seen anything like this until the 1860s which gave reason and gave rise to the creation of the 14th Amendment for equal protection,” Jackson told the Chicago Crusader.
He was referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, passed by the Senate on June 8, 1866, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War. It states that no one who has previously held office in the United States and who participates in an insurrection may ever hold public office again.
Jackson added, “The 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court got it wrong. It was created based upon race for the defense of our race because after slavery we could not have honest services in government by former Confederates overseeing our voting booths.”
Reminded that the 14th Amendment says a person cannot run for the presidency if he or she were involved in acts of insurrection, Jackson, said, “sedition, insurrection, it lays it out very clearly. The esteemed Professor Laurence Tribe has articulated this issue.”
Jackson was referring to Tribe’s recent interview on CNN when he said, “The people who wrote the 14th Amendment were not fools. They realized that if those people who tried to overturn the country, who tried to get rid of our peaceful transitions of power are again put in power, that would be the end of the nation, the end of democracy.”
Jackson added, “We’ve come to the question of who brings the case, who brings the charges” against Trump based on his alleged violation of the 14th Amendment. Jackson said he and others are awaiting call backs from the head of the Justice Department and from the Secretary of State to follow suit.
“It lays it out very clearly because they anticipated that the persons who had been involved in the war would reassemble themselves like they tried to do after the death of Abraham Lincoln. They assassinated Lincoln over these same issues…,” said Jackson
“What Fani Willis did in the shadows of Dr. King, 60 years after with a culminating event, she will go down in history as one of our greatest freedom fighters.”
Asked his opinion of Blacks like Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti who was among those indicted with Trump for allegedly trying to get a Black Georgia election worker to falsely admit to ballot fraud, Jackson said, “I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I look forward to their day in court.”
When asked if the participation by Blacks indicted in the Trump scandal amounts to a slap in the face of Dr. King, Jackson said, “l think it is a slap in the face of every hard working American and to close to 60 million people who voted. I think it is a slap in the face to the abolitionists and civil rights workers and people of good faith who fought and believed in our country.”
Jackson said the Supreme Court has nullified the affirmative action spirit of the law to give Blacks inclusion. “They’ve taken it off. Where is the reparation? Where is the justice? How do you repair for the negative action that’s been done towards communities?”
Regarding the state of Black America today, and what can be done to carry on Dr. King’s dream, Jackson said, “We should recognize that the fight is not over. It has not been over and if this isn’t a wakeup call, some people want to be like Rip Van Winkle and sleep through a revolution.
