Jesse Jackson & the Politics of Charisma

The Rise and Fall of the PUSH/Excel Program

Ernest R. House

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367003272
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429718670
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Secondary Education
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"On January 15, 1975, the Reverend Jesse Jackson was leading a
demonstration around the White House to protest the lack of jobs for
black youths. As the demonstrators marched, Jackson was shocked to
discover that many of the black youths marching with him were drunk
or on drugs, many of them ""out of control."" Abruptly, he called a halt
to the demonstration and sent the marchers home.
Within a few months, Jackson launched a national campaign in the
urban high schools of the nation to save the black youths of his country,
to get them off drugs and motivate them to work hard, study in school,
develop self-discipline, and become successful in American society. A
program called PUSH for Excellence, or PUSH/Excel, was an outgrowth
of his Operation PUSH organization. Society had no solutions for the
black teenagers whom Jackson was trying to help, and his efforts were
highly praised, at first, by the media and government officials."

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Most Controversial Man in America
• Part One Jesse Jackson and the PUSH/Excel Program
• 2 A Great Idea
• 3 The Program: Commitment and Self-Discipline
• 4 School Politics
• 5 An Inside Look at Two Programs
• 6 The Federal Evaluation
• 7 The Federal Verdict: No Program
• 8 Reactions to the PUSH/Excel Saga
• 9 The Failure of PUSH/Excel
• Part Two Jesse Jackson and the Power of Charisma
• 11 The Limits of Charisma
• 12 The Politics of Race and Social Class
• 13 Jesse Jackson's Character
• 14 Postscript: The Presidential Campaigns
• References
• Index