The Reverend Jesse Jackson appeared at Schwab Auditorium on the Penn State campus in March of 1999, as part of the university’s distinguished speaker series.
Jackson’s speech was one of the best public speeches I have ever witnesses. The topic of the speech was to draw attention to the fact, as Mr. Jackson stated, that “States spend more money of prisons at the expense of and instead of education and schools.” The audience of primarily college students was also informed by Mr. Jackson that since they attend a State funded school, all of them were “recipients of welfare.” He did so in order to reinforce his point that state welfare monies should be spent on refurbishing old schools and building new schools instead of pouring billions of dollars into the prison system.
The Reverend Jackson was not only well-organized and prepared, but he delivered a host of important information to the audience, like the fact that the 1999 fiscal budgets of Pennsylvania and California has earmarked more funds for prisons than education. He also pointed out that because of such misplaced and misdirected priorities, our currently run-down, under-staffed, and under-equipped schools act as a feeding mill for out prison systems. Because of his past accomplishments and association with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson maintained a high level of credibility throughout his speech. He talked of his past experiences with King, Jr., and how King’s vision was one of inclusion for all not exclusion of the many by the few. The order of his speech was well organized as he began by pointing out to state university college students that they, too, are recipients of welfare before he began addressing the need for states to allocate higher levels of welfare monies to public goods like schools instead of prisons.
Jackson’s delivery was superb. He was relaxed, comfortable, and interjected quite a bit of humor
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