The younger Jackson is on a short list of candidates being considered to fill Obama's Illinois Senate seat.
G.I. Johnson, a former president of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was supposed to usher at Israel Baptist Church in East Baltimore yesterday, but his pastor excused him so he could attend Bethel. He wanted to see if the elder Jackson had "calmed down his tone a bit."
He said he was impressed with what he heard, calling it a "message of hope."
"We must come together," he said.
Jackson came to Bethel at the behest of its pastor, the Rev. Frank M. Reid III, who said churches have historically been motivating centers for African-Americans economically, educationally, politically and spiritually.
Church members drove people to the polls on Election Day, and Reid plans to develop job- and resume-training programs for the community in 2009. For him, he said, the next decade is about "raising up an entirely new generation of entrepreneurs and business owners and a new generation of millionaires and billionaires in this community."
Reid asked Jackson to talk about what's next, what the postelection black agenda should be within the black church, and introduced him as "the prophet of our struggle" and "our living Moses." Jackson said the black agenda is the American agenda: one that calls for less disparity, more opportunities, a stronger economy and brighter futures for children.
