"The Tea Party is not new," Jackson said at a luncheon honoring civil rights pioneers on Thursday. The event was one of several taking place this week in conjunction with Sunday's planned dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. It included surviving confidantes of King — Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, and Julian Bond, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee— along with modern-day civil rights leaders, including NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and National Urban League President Marc Morial, who was emcee.
Jackson, who was with King when he was shot and killed in Memphis in 1968, said modern-day civil rights efforts should focus on issues such as ending "expensive, unnecessary, ungodly wars" and creating a fair tax code where "the wealthiest pay their fair share." Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, also spoke of tough fights ahead. King's eldest son, Martin Luther King III, echoed the idea of the week's events catapulting society to action.
Jesse Jackson said Thursday that the Tea Party’s tenets are reminiscent of state’s rights philosophies used in decades past to oppose federally mandated integration.
“The Tea Party is not new,” Jackson said at a luncheon honoring civil rights pioneers on Thursday.