http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12028205.htm
July 1, 2005

Jackson calls for black-Hispanic coalition

DAVID HAMMER
Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Standing at the site of a landmark school integration battle, the Rev. Jesse Jackson locked arms Thursday with leaders of the nation's two largest Hispanic organizations to repeat his call for a new civil rights coalition.

Jackson said it was time to recall the two communities' shared history of discrimination.

"While some were picking beans, some were picking cotton, but we were both being picked on," he said in front of Little Rock Central High School, where integration in 1957 was the first major test of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling three years earlier.

"Most of the people in the world today are young, brown, black, poor, female, don't speak English," Jackson said. "So let's join the real world: Si, se puede (Yes, it can be done)."

Jackson announced in May he was forming a group that would address issues affecting blacks and Hispanics including fair immigration policies and voting rights.

On Thursday, Jackson appeared with Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latino American Citizens; Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza; and Minnijean Brown-Trickey, one of the famed "Little Rock Nine" who integrated the high school under armed guard.

Jackson's comments come at a time of increased tensions between the two ethnic groups. Many blacks have sharply criticized Mexican President Vicente Fox recently for his disparaging comments about blacks and Mexico's release of a postage stamp depicting an old black cartoon character with exaggerated features.

ON THE NET

LULAC: http://www.lulac.org/

National Council of La Raza: http://www.nclr.org/

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition: http://www.rainbowpush.org/