Jackson to protest 'Liberty Weekend, p. 1
Dublin Core
Title
Jackson to protest 'Liberty Weekend, p. 1
Description
“NEW YORK (UPI) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson charged Friday that the Liberty Weekend festival ignores thousands of homeless “huddled masses” in New York CIty and threatened to live with homeless people during the celebration.
Jackson addressed reporters at the Martinique Hotel, one of Manhattan’s seediest welfare hotels, to protest the poverty that exists “in the shadow of Wall Street and the shadow fo Ellis Island.”
He challenged Gov. Mario Cuomo to hold a “summit conference” to deal with the city’s poverty problem. He claimed 40 percent of all New Yorkers live in poverty and 54 percent of the city children are impoverished. He also said New York has a 25-in-1,000 infant mortality rate in city welfare hotels.
“The fact is it will not be a weekend of just boats and lights and firecrackers,” said Jackson. “There’s another side of the story that needs to be told and we have an obligation to be the conscience of the celebration.”
Jackson said he and the state Black-Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus were planning activities to protest the Liberty festival’s ignoring poverty.
Jackson said he was considering a “live-in arrangement” with some homeless or street people over the Liberty festival from July 3 to July 6 which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the newly refurbished Statue of Liberty.
“The huddled masses in New York are not just past tense. They are present tense and future tense,” said Jackson. He described New York as a city of two populations - “one well-off and rising higher and one not so well-off and sinking deeper.”
The festival will include a $1,000-a-person black-tie bash on Governor’s Island during which Frank Sinatra will sing and President Reagan will flip a switch to light the statue. Also planned is the nation’s largest Fourth of July fireworks show and tallship and yachting festival.
“The matter of the plight of the poor has been pushed to the background of our country by diversionary tactics and by the glittering lights of the Reagan administration,” Jackson charged.
“At this point there is a crack in the Statue of Liberty’s welcome mat,” he said. “It does not include the homeless who are yearning to breathe free.”
Other black leaders have charged the Statue of Liberty celebration is ignoring the national monuments black roots and said some minorities plan to skip the birthday bash and throw their own parties.
“The French gave us the statue as an appreciation of the abolitionists, and the fact that the U.S. set the slaves free. That whole story is never told,” said Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., who represents part of Brooklyn.
“There is great sentiment that it (the celebration) is European centered, that the basic story of the Statue of Liberty is being ignored,” he said.
Owens and other critics say the festival is celebrating America’s white past, and ignores the HIspanics, blacks, Asians, American-Indians and other minorities who came here as “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The Caribbean Cultural Center is throwing its own party called “Sweet Land of Liberty for Whom?” - on June 28 with poetry, dance and exhibits.
“People are disenchanted,” said Marta Vega Moreno of the Caribbean Cultural Center. “The celebration should reflect a celebration of ethnic communities in this city, and in this nation. A lot of cultures are not being recognized.”
Other community groups are planning similar events. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is showing an exhibit “Give me Your Tired, Your Poor …?” on voluntary black migration to the United States.
The Studio Museum in Harlem is running programs from July 2 to Sept. 28 telling people “how to face the Fourth of July as a black in America.”
Liberty Weekend spokesman Jones Halperin denied the charges, saying blacks are well represented throughout the festivities.
A film being shown at the opening ceremonies features blacks, black entertainers are participating and a black psychologist is getting one of the liberty medals, he said.
“There is in the opening ceremonies a segment on film dealing with the immigrant experience. A portion of the segment deals with black immigrants - from Africa, those who were brought were by chain of course and those who came from the island,” he said.
“This is a country of immigrants, and how can you not celebrate your immigrant populations totally? Clearly people of color are not being focused on a part of that celebration,” said the Caribbean center’s Moreno.
“That is quite a valid criticism,” said Owens. “The limited number of people who are getting medals, and the general millionaires’ aura which surrounds the whole thing. It’s part of the larger grievance that we have of being always shut out.”
Owns and Moreno said they knew of no organized movement to boycott the four-day birthday party, during which Reagan will flip a switch and light up the newly refurbished statue.”
Jackson addressed reporters at the Martinique Hotel, one of Manhattan’s seediest welfare hotels, to protest the poverty that exists “in the shadow of Wall Street and the shadow fo Ellis Island.”
He challenged Gov. Mario Cuomo to hold a “summit conference” to deal with the city’s poverty problem. He claimed 40 percent of all New Yorkers live in poverty and 54 percent of the city children are impoverished. He also said New York has a 25-in-1,000 infant mortality rate in city welfare hotels.
“The fact is it will not be a weekend of just boats and lights and firecrackers,” said Jackson. “There’s another side of the story that needs to be told and we have an obligation to be the conscience of the celebration.”
Jackson said he and the state Black-Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus were planning activities to protest the Liberty festival’s ignoring poverty.
Jackson said he was considering a “live-in arrangement” with some homeless or street people over the Liberty festival from July 3 to July 6 which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the newly refurbished Statue of Liberty.
“The huddled masses in New York are not just past tense. They are present tense and future tense,” said Jackson. He described New York as a city of two populations - “one well-off and rising higher and one not so well-off and sinking deeper.”
The festival will include a $1,000-a-person black-tie bash on Governor’s Island during which Frank Sinatra will sing and President Reagan will flip a switch to light the statue. Also planned is the nation’s largest Fourth of July fireworks show and tallship and yachting festival.
“The matter of the plight of the poor has been pushed to the background of our country by diversionary tactics and by the glittering lights of the Reagan administration,” Jackson charged.
“At this point there is a crack in the Statue of Liberty’s welcome mat,” he said. “It does not include the homeless who are yearning to breathe free.”
Other black leaders have charged the Statue of Liberty celebration is ignoring the national monuments black roots and said some minorities plan to skip the birthday bash and throw their own parties.
“The French gave us the statue as an appreciation of the abolitionists, and the fact that the U.S. set the slaves free. That whole story is never told,” said Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., who represents part of Brooklyn.
“There is great sentiment that it (the celebration) is European centered, that the basic story of the Statue of Liberty is being ignored,” he said.
Owens and other critics say the festival is celebrating America’s white past, and ignores the HIspanics, blacks, Asians, American-Indians and other minorities who came here as “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The Caribbean Cultural Center is throwing its own party called “Sweet Land of Liberty for Whom?” - on June 28 with poetry, dance and exhibits.
“People are disenchanted,” said Marta Vega Moreno of the Caribbean Cultural Center. “The celebration should reflect a celebration of ethnic communities in this city, and in this nation. A lot of cultures are not being recognized.”
Other community groups are planning similar events. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is showing an exhibit “Give me Your Tired, Your Poor …?” on voluntary black migration to the United States.
The Studio Museum in Harlem is running programs from July 2 to Sept. 28 telling people “how to face the Fourth of July as a black in America.”
Liberty Weekend spokesman Jones Halperin denied the charges, saying blacks are well represented throughout the festivities.
A film being shown at the opening ceremonies features blacks, black entertainers are participating and a black psychologist is getting one of the liberty medals, he said.
“There is in the opening ceremonies a segment on film dealing with the immigrant experience. A portion of the segment deals with black immigrants - from Africa, those who were brought were by chain of course and those who came from the island,” he said.
“This is a country of immigrants, and how can you not celebrate your immigrant populations totally? Clearly people of color are not being focused on a part of that celebration,” said the Caribbean center’s Moreno.
“That is quite a valid criticism,” said Owens. “The limited number of people who are getting medals, and the general millionaires’ aura which surrounds the whole thing. It’s part of the larger grievance that we have of being always shut out.”
Owns and Moreno said they knew of no organized movement to boycott the four-day birthday party, during which Reagan will flip a switch and light up the newly refurbished statue.”
Creator
N/A
Publisher
Baltimore African American
Date
1986-6-28
Collection
Citation
N/A, “Jackson to protest 'Liberty Weekend, p. 1,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 27, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/28.