9781422277782

Yet Dukakis had to give the impression he was seriously considering Jackson. To have done otherwisewould have been a slap in the face to Jackson and Jackson’s loyal supporters, and if they, theblackDemocratswhohadnearlyunanimouslybackedJackson in the primaries, did not vote for Dukakis in November, the governor was sure to lose. On the Fourth of July, Dukakis had attempted to cultivate his rival. The governor and his wife, Kitty, invited Jesse and Jacqueline Jackson to their home just outside Boston for a holiday dinner, followed by the annual Boston Pops concert and fireworks display on the Charles River. Nothing went right. The Jacksons arrived an hour and a half late, partly because no one met them at Logan Airport. The Dukakises, unaware of Jackson’s allergy to milk, served a meal of creamy New England clam chowder and salmon poached in milk. When Dukakis and his guest settled down in the living room to discuss the vice presidency, the governor’s daughters entered the room, offering ice cream for dessert. At the concert, a famished Jackson ordered fried chicken from a vendor and Dukakis strained to make small talk. There was, of course, a chance for some serious political talk after the concert, but Dukakis said he felt sleepy. The evening left Jackson in a foul mood. “He felt he had been treated like a nigger,” said a friend. Compared to what happened next, the dinner was a stunning social success. The governor and his campaign continued the charade that Jackson was under serious consideration for vice-president. Dukakis dispatched his senior adviser, Paul Brountas, to conduct a lengthy interviewwith Jackson. At its conclusion, Brountas said that whomever Dukakis selected, Jackson would be among the first to know, well before the choice became public. “Reverend Jackson,” Brountas pledged, “you’re not going to read about it in the newspapers.” To be fair, he did not. He heard the news from a reporter. On the morning of Wednesday, July 13, as he disembarked from a plane at National Airport in Washington, D.C., newspeople closed in, each asking what he thought of Dukakis’s choosing Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas to be his running mate.

1 0

C I V I L R I G H T S L E A D E R S : J E S S E J AC K S O N