Has the Jesse Jackson Brand Lost Its Value?

(The Grio) — In December, 2008 a stern faced Reverend Jesse Jackson looked directly into a news camera and bluntly told the nation that he was not “an emissary” in the alleged scheme by his son, Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. to shell out $1 million in bribe money to disgraced and indicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to appoint Jackson Jr. to the vacated senate seat held by then President-elect Obama. Jackson Sr. wanted the record clear that he was not a target in the investigation.

But Jackson then in a trademark Jackson quip quickly added that “Politics is a contact sport. Only those on the sidelines have clean uniforms.” Jackson had good reason to be indignant at the very thought that anyone would impugn his name and reputation. For more than four decades since that fateful day in April, 1968 when Jackson cradled the dying Martin Luther King, Jr. in his arms on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis he has been the media and black America’s go to guy on race and activism.

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