Jackson Calls Out Schools Not Honoring Dr. King
CHICAGO (WBBM/CBS) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson called attention to some schools that are not observing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday morning, during annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition King Day holiday.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, Jackson said he objects to schools holding classes on the day honoring Dr. King.
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"This is a sacred trust; a covenant made with America to officially break the lineage of slavery and segregation," Jackson said. "There is no higher moral cause than this day represents."
Jackson said "extending the service of a prophet is our mission today," and that mission is putting people back to work.
Dr. King, he said, would not be pleased with the nation's unemployment.
Jackson's son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., urged the unemployed and the underemployed to send him their resumes and their stories, and they would be entered into the congressional record.
"We as Americans in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world can't find enough money to put a man or a woman on their own two feet in America," Rep. Jackson said. "Something is wrong."
While the vast majority of schools both public and private do have the day off Monday, some are holding classes. One of them, Providence St. Mel School at 119 S. Central Park Blvd., remained in session Monday and dedicated the day to lessons about Dr. King and his work.
The founder and president of the school, Paul J. Adams III, says the school has always been open on King Day, and tells the Chicago Tribune's Dawn Turner Trice that since Dr. King was himself an educator, he thinks it's "ridiculous" to close schools for the holiday, and it is "disrespectful, especially in the black community, when our children are left behind."
