Jesse Jackson Says He'll Make Reparations a Priority

DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said on Wednesday he would make reparations for the past enslavement of African-Americans a priority when he returns to the United States from a world racism conference.

``It is the issue of repair for damage done,'' Jackson told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. conference on racism in the South African port city of Durban.

``We (African-Americans) have fewer services and less education. We are disproportionately jailed and killed by the state. We have shorter life spans. We have less access to capital,'' Jackson said.

He added that all of these social and economic problems faced by African-American community were rooted in centuries of slavery that ended with the North's victory over the South in the Civil War in 1865.

Asked if he would make reparations for slavery a political priority when he returns to the United States, Jackson said: ''Yes, of course...we must make crooked ways straight.''

Jackson also slammed the low-level U.S. delegation for pulling out of the conference on Monday in protest at wording branding Israel a racist state, saying it was a political smokescreen to evade the slavery issue.

``We used the Middle East controversy as an excuse (to avoid slavery),'' he said.

``The great issues of our time were pushed off the agenda because of the wording on the Middle East,'' he said, referring to other topics such as debt relief for the developing world and AIDS (news - web sites).

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001