Jackson Plays Race Card to the Wrong Crowd

Back during the college bowl games I posted about the exploits of Boise State, whose team included a former Mission Viejo High School star. Jesse Jackson visited Boise State and tried to play the race card on the wrong crowd (from Special Report):

Blacks Not Welcome?

Jesse Jackson last week visited Boise State University — the small Idaho school fresh off a big upset of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl football game on New Year's night. Jackson told his audience that black football players were not welcome at the school during the 1950's and 60's —and that upset some people in the community. A few got out the record books to prove him wrong — and they did.

The Idaho Statesman newspaper says the school archivist found what was then Boise Junior College had black athletes as far back as the 1940's — even though there were very few black people in the region then. He says old yearbooks document the presence of black athletes on campus.

A historian at the university called Jackson's remarks "an attempt to stereotype Boise with loose regard for the facts."

It must be very upsetting to Jackson to play the race card and have somebody challenge him on it. He's not used to that.