When people discuss Dr. Martin Luther King, Memphis, Tennessee and April 4th, the date of Dr. King’s assassination, they invariably think of the “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech, Dr. King’s last public address before his assassination. They listen to the poetry of King’s last refrain and omit the substance in the body of his message. America has a way of decorating the messenger and mutilating the message. By reviewing the text of his last speech, one will better understands that my mission the last thirty-four years is a direct result of the last assignment Dr. King gave me.

My last assignment emanated from this often overlooked portion of Dr. King’s famous Mountaintop speech. Dr. King states, “ We are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy-what is the other bread?-Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse?  Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.”

Columnists have recently suggested that I “hustle”companies into trading with companies of color. I do not. When African-Americans and Hispanics supply companies with large portions of their market and revenues and they, the corporations, don’t contract with people of color, don’t have any people of color above middle management or on their board of directors, they boycott us even though our consumer dollars keeps the company in business.

As Dr. King stated on April 4, 1968, “ let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice.”  It was unjust in 1968 not to hire people of color above the broom and mop level, just as it is unjust now not to hired qualified people of color and women in upper management positions. We must trade with our power to open closed doors. We must invest to develop institutions in our own community.

On April 24-25, 2002, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Silicon Valley Conference begins in order to continue Dr. Martin Luther King’s last assignment, which was to utilize our private consumer power to leverage companies for reciprocal trade. The object is not to put the company out of business; it is to put justice in the business. For economic justice is fair and balanced trade. We have money, market, location and talent. Corporations have capital, access, product and opportunity. We need each other. We go to Silicon Valley not to boycott, but to seek mutual trading partners because the dream continues.

Keep Hope Alive!

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is the founder and president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition headquartered in Chicago.