When Jesse Jackson Met Ronald Reagan

The passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson brings to my mind a meeting between him and Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign. It might have been a lost opportunity.

During the Republican nominating convention of July 1980, candidate Reagan called for a huge military buildup to counter the Soviets. There was little in the Republican platform to appeal to black citizens, beyond enterprise zones, small business assistance, and civil rights enforcement.

Gov. James Rhodes of Ohio was convinced that a Reagan pledge to locate increased defense manufacturing in cities with large black populations would stimulate black support, especially that of Jackson. Through a black lawyer friend, Rhodes was able to get Jackson to agree to a private meeting with Reagan. On August 5, 1980, Reagan travelled to Jackson’s office on the south side of Chicago. With him were top staffer Mike Deaver, Dan Smith (one of Reagan’s few black staffers), and—as senior policy advisor for urban affairs—me.

Jackson sat behind his large desk, without an aide present. Reagan and Deaver sat side by side in front of the desk, with Smith sitting behind them. I stood behind Reagan. The meeting lasted maybe 40 minutes. Dan and I wisely kept our mouths shut.

In the previous week, a carload of white drunks had fired a shotgun into a line of black people waiting at a bus stop in Chattanooga. Jackson didn’t accuse Reagan of racism, but forcefully and repeatedly—three times—demanded that Reagan disavow unnamed “Reagan supporters” who were spewing anti-black slogans, lest the Reagan candidacy embolden the forces of racism.

Reagan earnestly replied—three times—that he “did not have a racist bone in my body” and deplored the Chattanooga event. He said that he had regularly condemned acts of racism and intolerance over many years, but that he was not prepared to accept personal responsibility for such acts in no way connected to his campaign.

Jackson was unwilling to accept that response, and the conversation moved uncomfortably forward. Jackson then handed Reagan a 10-point action agenda involving jobs, welfare, civil rights enforcement, and other items of interest to blacks.

Reagan took the sheet of paper from Jackson and started to address the 10 points one by one. Quickly, Deaver reached over and literally snatched the sheet out of Reagan’s hand. From my vantage point, I could see how startled Reagan was. Deaver, silent up to that point, addressed Jackson: “We’ll take this back, have our staff people look at it, and we’ll get back to you.” He was clearly concerned that Reagan might agree to some of those points that went beyond, or in opposition to, Reagan’s platform. At that point, the meeting rather uncomfortably ended.

Back in Reagan’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, I pressed my superiors to let me generate a response to each of the 10 points. Two or three days went by. Then I received a call from one of Jackson’s aides, who told me that the reverend was to speak to a strategy gathering the following Saturday and was expected to report on his meeting with Reagan and how many of the 10 points of the agenda Reagan had agreed to.

Alas, it fell to me to report that the Reagan staff, and Reagan himself, had not discussed any of the 10 points following that Chicago meeting, despite my persistent efforts to fulfill Reagan’s (actually Deaver’s) promise.

I don’t believe anyone in the Reagan campaign ever responded to Jackson, or engaged in any discussion with him. One wonders what opportunity was wasted.

A month later, Jackson told students at the University of Washington that “fascism is only four weeks away.”