Jesse Jackson: Ferguson prepares for the worst

Political leaders in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and at the Federal level, have put in place a full-court press and are mobilizing their forces to combat a "possibleuprising" in response to a decision yet to come from a St. Louis grand jury with respect to Darren Wilson's killing of Michael Brown. They've declared a pre-state-of-emergency and put together an action plan to put it down.

I only know of one other time when such a plan was put in place and that was before the 1963 March on Washington. It was thought that if you brought that many Black people together in Washington to protest there would be violence. There wasn't!

There's a full-court press to put down an uprising around Ferguson, but no preparation for lifting up the people there. There's no full-court press – or pre-state-of-emergency plan - being put in place by local or national political leaders to combat "actual injustice" and "actual inequality" as seen by the lack of jobs, the economic disparity in income and wealth, educational inequality, the lack of health care for many citizens, the dearth of affordable housing, inadequate recreation facilities, economic development in areas of greatest need, job training and more.

They've put a plan in place to cancel classes and close schools in anticipation of a grand jury decision, but there's no plan in place to build new schools, new science labs, new music rooms, new swimming pools, new language labs and to reduce class sizes in overcrowded schools – and none is anticipated.

There's no full-court press on poverty; no full-court press by the Federal Government to enforce civil rights laws; no full-court press to have a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) aggressively enforce their laws; no full-court press for the reconstruction of inner city communities, needy suburbs or poor rural towns.

The coffers are full of money and equipment for the Ferguson Police and the Missouri National Guard to put down a potential uprising, but no money for actually uplifting the people of Ferguson, St. Louis, Missouri and around the nation. Politicians and the press referencing the protesters as "hooligans" is dangerous and contributes to an atmosphere of anxiety and fear, which are the twin foundations of violence!

And the lack of a full court press on these troubling economic and political issues is what has led to the tension around the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson - and the "Michael Browns" and "Fergusons" that need social, economic and political reconstruction and uplift all around the nation. It's the locking out of Black people and other minorities, women and poor Whites, and their exposure to the economic violence of denied opportunities in our society, schools, industries and in our economic and political life that has resulted in Ferguson and the other "Fergusons" that exist all around the nation.

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is the founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

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