Jesse Jackson dies: Civil rights leader visited Long Island many times over the years

Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84, made frequent stops on Long Island during his decades-long career, calling for greater unity between the races and nudging locals to think about racial inequality even when his message was often resisted.

Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., visited Nassau and Suffolk counties in 1984, during his run for president of the United States.

He stopped by Hofstra University on April 2, 1984, to stump before the student body, some of whom had already ruled out his candidacy after it was reported that he had referred to New York City with a Jewish slur.

Going to Hofstra was like "coming into the lion’s den," Mark Trompeter, the president of the Campus Democrats Club, told Newsday at the time. Nearly a third of the students at the university were Jewish then and the slur, along with his support of a Palestinian homeland, had turned many off, the paper reported.

Jackson, the second Black person, after Shirley Chisholm, to launch a presidential candidacy, fought hard for votes in New York. He considered Nassau County a prime population to incorporate into his Rainbow Coalition, a political platform aimed at uniting people from white, Black and Hispanic communities supporting funding social programs and cutting military spending.

Most of the enthusiasm for his candidacy at Hofstra came from Black students.

"He’s got people involved in politics for the first time, registering to vote and active," Frank Peay, the head of a Black fraternity that brought Jackson to the university, told Newsday at the time.

Jackson trailed the other Democratic Party candidates, Gary Hart and Walter Mondale.

Even after his political defeat, Jackson pressed forward with the Rainbow Coalition, which Newsday reported had become "a formidable political force" around the country by registering thousands of new Black voters.

"This is the first time that we’ve pulled together such a wide range of minorities who are working toward the same goal," Joysetta Pearse told Newsday in 1986 during a coalition meeting at Nassau Community College. 

The movement promised to endorse candidates regardless of their party affiliation.

"It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrats or Republicans," Pearse told a reporter. "As long as they accept our philosophy."

Political bosses from both parties gave the movement a cool reception, but agreed to accept endorsements of their candidates.

"If the Rainbow Coalition seeks to provide support for the Republican candidate, then we would welcome it," Suffolk County Republican leader William Blake told Newsday in 1986.

Two years later, Jackson swung through Long Island again for his 1988 presidential campaign, stopping by Adelphi University for a senior citizens' forum with his political rivals then-Sen. Al Gore and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

Some liked his message but questioned his experience to run the country.

"I like everything you said, and your dynamic and your rhetoric is wonderful," Saul Schindler, of Hewlett, told the candidate, according to Newsday reporting at the time. "But what experience do you have that can give voters confidence that you can handle the most difficult job in the world? Won't the Republicans be able to clobber you?"

Jackson defended his candidacy by attacking Republicans for "record debt, record deficits and record amounts of corruption and sleaze," Newsday reported.

The White House went to Republican candidate George H.W. Bush.

The next public appearance for Jackson on Long Island was not for political reasons, but to soothe racial tensions after the Dec. 7, 1993, mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road.

Colin Ferguson, originally from Jamaica, killed six people and injured 21 others on the commuter train, shooting them with an automatic handgun as they traveled home from work. He appeared to suffer from mental illness and harbored animosity toward white people.

Jackson called for calm and cautioned against retribution.

"There are those who call for revenge, race-baiting and retribution," he told a congregation at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City. He warned that violence "cannot be isolated by race or income or class ... and cannot be isolated and contained on one side of town."

Some congregants felt that Jackson’s presence was unnecessary, even unhelpful.

"I don't think this is a civil rights issue," Maryanne Phillips, of Mineola, told Newsday at the time. "I think this issue is more of an economic issue and gun-control issue."

Jackson referred to the shooting as a "cancer of violence" and wondered out loud if the massacre would prompt a change in attitudes in the country toward guns.

"Wherever possible, we should buy them, burn them and ban them," Jackson said. "Guns are no longer an issue of defense," he said.

In later years, Jackson stumped for the late Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son was wounded in the 1993 shooting.

In 2016, he stopped by Hofstra again, this time to support Hillary Clinton in her campaign against Donald Trump.

He told a Newsday reporter that he hoped the election would focus on issues of substance to the voters, like wage stagnation, student debt and "how we relate to our neighbors in Mexico, how we relate to Muslims."

"I think people have grown tired of the entertainment," Jackson told Newsday. "They want to know ,'What does this election mean to me?' "