Jackson Fall Met with Compassion

Jan. 19, 2001 -- While the Rev. Jesse Jackson deals in private with the public revelation that he fathered a child out of wedlock, African-Americans across the country are struggling with the realization that a civil rights hero may have fallen.

Jackson supporters say they felt a shared initial reaction — shock, disbelief and disappointment — but whether that disappointment festers into cynicism toward a man who has stood as a moral bellwether, or be eased by forgiveness of human frailty remains to be seen.

"This is no time for evasions, denials or alibis," Jackson, a former aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said in a statement released just as tabloids were about to break the Baptist minister's story. "I fully accept responsibility and I am truly sorry for my actions."

Jackson, who very publicly counseled President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said he loves the 20-month-old child he fathered with a 39-year-old worker at his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition office in Washington and has "assumed responsibility for her emotional and financial support since she was born."

Jackson said his wife and children already knew about the child, and asked his "many friends and supporters for their "forgiveness, understanding and prayers."

While the revelation about Clinton's affair with Lewinsky seemed to have little impact on his effectiveness as president, Jackson faces an entirely different challenge if he is to maintain his standing within the black community.

Forgiveness on the Street

In New York, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, the reaction on the street was cautious, and perhaps surprisingly forgiving for a man who has long urged black men to be more responsible to their families.

"Well he's human like the rest of us … let's not forget the good things he's done," one Chicago woman said. "He makes mistakes like the rest of us, but he's done a lot of good for a lot of people, so if we can tolerate [mistakes] in the president why not Jesse Jackson?"

"He's done too much good, that's why it doesn't take away from that," a Chicago man said. "Too much positive in Jesse Jackson to bring out the negative. Jesse has to deal with the man upstairs, I wish the best for him and his family."

Jackson may have helped to foster this forgiveness himself, by not hedging in his acknowledgement of the child, by accepting responsibility and by his show of humility.

"Honesty is always something that will repair integrity when it is damaged," said the Rev. James Victor, assistant pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the church where King was pastor. "But no one knows how people will respond."

Emory University sociologist Nancy Eiesland said that perhaps the black Christian community may be more ready than white Christians would be to forgive one of their own who has fallen.

"Part of it is related to the extent to which Jesse Jackson has given his life to service. That is taken into account," Eiesland told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The Christian, conservative African-American church, while conservative, often has a fairly open mind to human sexuality."

"He's a man, first of all, and men make mistakes," said Russell Ashton of Fairfield, Conn. "It's not the mistakes he makes, it's how he comes away from it and what he does with the rest of his life that will define him. In the Bible, there are numerous stories of people who have made mistakes, but are defined by how they come away from them, what they did afterward."

ABCNEWS.com's Dean Schabner contributed to this report.