Showing His Stuff in Dixie

Jesse Jackson proves he can entice blacks to the polls

From the beginning of his campaign, Jesse Jackson had counted on the primaries below the Mason-Dixon line to show that he could entice historically stay-at-home blacks to the voting booth. Last week in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, Jackson did just that. "Blacks just ran to the polls," said Tyrone Brooks, Jackson's campaign director in Georgia.

Indeed, in Alabama and Georgia, blacks for the first time ever in presidential primaries voted more heavily than whites. In Alabama, where blacks make up 22.5% of the state's registered voters, they were an outsize 35% of its Super Tuesday electorate. In Georgia, where they account for 20.6% of the registered voters, blacks cast an estimated 34% of the primary total.

In Alabama, according to an NBC exit poll, Jackson won 60% of the black vote to 34% for Walter Mondale, who was backed by Joe Reed, chairman of the black Alabama Democratic Conference. (A New York Times/CBS survey found the Alabama vote split more evenly: 50% for Jackson, 47% for Mondale.) One weak spot for Jackson was the Birmingham area, where Mondale, aided by black Mayor Richard Arlington, trounced him by 2 to 1. In Georgia, where Mondale was supported by Coretta Scott King and State Senator Julian Bond, blacks cast 70% of their ballots for Jackson, 24% for the former Vice President.

In all three states, younger blacks were Jackson's most enthusiastic supporters. In Alabama, he was backed by 67% of black voters aged 18 to 49, compared with 45% of the over-50 crowd. In Florida, 68% of the vim-and-vigor vote went to Jackson while only 52% of older blacks did. "I didn't want to miss the opportunity of voting for a black man for President," said black Mechanic James Powell, 30. Older blacks took a more hard-nosed view. "I just don't feel Jackson can win," said Mondale Supporter Tom Thomas, 57, a retired truck driver.

The upcoming primaries in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania will provide a tougher test for Jackson. Northern blacks traditionally are less swayed by appeals from the black church, which has been the power plant of Jackson's campaign. But after his impressive showings on Super Tuesday and in Saturday's Arkansas, Mississippi and South Carolina caucuses, the two front runners cannot take him lightly. Says black State Representative Robert Holmes of Atlanta: "Jackson's candidacy sends a message to liberals like Mondale that they will have to do more than mouth tokenisms."

In terms of delegates, Jackson does not figure to be much of a factor at the Democratic Convention. His influence will come from his proven ability to rally black voters. Jackson has already stated that he will support only a nominee who shares his opposition to runoff elections, dual registration and other measures that he feels undermine the Voting Rights Act and black political might. "Jesse is a power broker," says Ronnie Priest, 26, a black graduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Hopefully, he can make the Democratic Party pay up front, rather than take a promissory note."