WPCNR WHITE PLAINS POLL. January 13, 2007:

It's real quiet without him.

The Last Activist, Ron Jackson, is here no more to speak truth to power, "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted."

 In the silence marking the lacklustre public hearings on controversial issues recently, the straight talk he used to expose the  ugly issues behind the issues is missing. Not only has an advocate for the meek and a puncturer of the pompous left us, but no one's advocating and no one's puncturing. How is Mr. Jackson going to be remembered? WPCNR suggests some ways at the right.  Here's why:

Monday, the nation and White Plains stops to laud praises on the man credited with galvanizing the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But on that day, at the Dr. Martin Luther King breakfast at the Crowne Plaza, perhaps our thoughts should go out just a little to how White Plains might honor its most vocal and effective activist. Ron Jackson fought hard for the Slater Center programs all his life in White Plains. He fought when the Center was going to be shortchanged in budget, or allowed to decline in disrepair.

Ron Jackson, 2005, when a stroke had made unable to walk. Yet he still did his show. So far no one has expressed interest in taking over Winbrook Like It Is -- his WPPA-TV show that is now off the cable.

He spoke out.on minority hiring. He founded the Tenants Council at Winbrook, was elected to the Housing Authority and did much in his younger years to improve conditions for the residents there. For this alone he deserves remembrance.

In recent years he concerned himself with development, he advocated behind the scenes for education and made consciences in power respond. He was the lone voice in the White Plains political landscape that prompted black citizens to involve themselves, while smoothing the way for minorities in positions to do things to advocate for them with success.

In an indirect way, his lobbying support against the Housing Authority Building proposed adjacent to Bethel Baptist Church, created the White Plains Housing Authority Headquarters White Plains has today that is part of the community it serves and not an imposing government edifice. Jackson's lobbying pointed the way to get a project done that had lagged for twenty years.

 A victim of poor education, he nevertheless swallowed his pride and delivered his strong message as best he could without fear.  

He was made to pay dearly for his activism when he wrote a Housing Authority check using bad judgment for a few hundred dollars that he should not have done.

He was often the lone minority voice in council hearings who came out to speak.

Mr. Jackson even forced the Democratic Party to run Dennis Power for Mayor in 2005, by volunteering to run himself when no one else stepped up, until he expressed interest. It was  his last confrontation with injustice.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I'm sure  would have liked his style.

I think Dr. King would be pleased to have Ron Jackson on the dais with him Monday in spirit. So how is White Plains going to remember him? WPCNR has suggested some ways at the right.