by James Muhammad
Editor

CHICAGO (Finalcall.com)�From the highest levels of Congress to the highly charged level of grassroots activism, the voices demanding the release and proper treatment of Mrs. Jacqueline Jackson escalated June 25, as The Final Call went to press.

Mrs. Jackson, wife of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, has languished in a federal jail in Puerto Rico since being arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge June 18 for protesting the Navy bombings on Vieques island. Since then, she has refused to post $3,000 bail, refused to submit to a body-cavity search without a physician present and is on a hunger strike. Authorities have put her in solitary confinement.

"I stand in awe of her courage, determination and willingness to sacrifice her own body to heal the bodies of the children in Vieques," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told a cheering crowd of several hundred Black and Latino protesters during a June 25 noon rally outside the Federal Building here. Over chants of "Free Mrs. Jackson," the U.S. congressman who invited Mrs. Jackson to participate in the protests, told the crowd, "They want to send a chilling message to everyone."

Rep. Gutierrez, who was in a Puerto Rican jail for three days after being arrested for protesting and is currently awaiting his own trial, told protesters that he and others weren�t subjected to a body-cavity search or other harsh treatment received by Mrs. Jackson.

He said prison officials also have prevented Mrs. Jackson from purchasing items from the jail commissary and she has been denied her reading glasses and books.

Rev. Willie T. Barrow, a co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, reminded the mostly Black and Latino crowd that activism isn�t something new for Mrs. Jackson. But her recent emergence on the battlefront has been "surprising."

"God is using (Mrs. Jackson) as a tool and as a target to turn this nation around. Her incarceration will bring about freedom for women in general," Rev. Barrow told The Final Call, citing how the issue of body-cavity searches now is part of a national debate.

Several days earlier, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan condemned the government�s actions against Mrs. Jackson. He also offered support for Rep. Gutierrez and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is serving a 90-day sentence for his protest in Vieques.

"I do not believe the U.S. government would treat the wife of any prominent white official in such manner," the Minister said. "Mrs. Jackson�s dignity should not be compromised under the guise of prison rules and regulations. The government and prison officials should know that Mrs. Jackson is a very special woman in the eyes of our people and, more importantly, in the eyes of Allah (God). If the government and prison officials do not desire the wrath of Allah (God) to visit Puerto Rico, they would be wise not to persecute Mrs. Jackson for exercising her right to a peaceful protest.

"Since government officials are supposed to be servants of the people, and the people of Puerto Rico do not desire the bombing to continue, then, the government of the United States should cease and desist, not two years from now, but now," Min. Farrakhan said.

In what was viewed as an effort to gain Latino voter support and not to hurt his brother Jeb Bush�s run for re-election as Florida governor in 2002, President Bush recently announced that the Navy would stop using the base in 2003.

The move also was viewed as an effort to diminish the impact of a Nov. 6 referendum when Puerto Rican voters will decide whether to force the Navy to leave by May 2003. The referendum was drafted during the Clinton administration.

Protests against the practice bombings escalated following the 1999 death of a civilian guard from a stray bomb. The Navy also has ceased using live ammunition. Protests also persist because of claims that incidences of cancer, scleroderma, lupus, thyroid deficiencies, and asthma are higher on Vieques than on the Puerto Rican mainland. These diseases are caused by chemicals like radioactive depleted uranium used in past bombings, critics charge.

In a discussion with U.S. Rep. John Ashcroft June 22, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) demanded that the Justice Department immediately release Mrs. Jackson. Citing recent Appellate Court rulings, Rep. Conyers told Mr. Ashcroft that according to U.S. law, the Justice Department is blatantly violating Mrs. Jackson�s constitutional rights with regard to the request for body-cavity searches.

"I call on the Attorney General to stop hiding behind the mistakes and misjudgments made by low level bureaucrats � and take full responsibility for the actions of the U.S. Attorneys. I can conceive of no justification for not waiving bail, given her position in her home community and the nation," Rep. Conyers said in a prepared statement.

Rev. Sharpton and Mrs. Jackson have become an inspiration to the Latino community, offered Carlos Rovira of the New York-based Vieques Support Committee. "But this is not something new to us. Back in the late 1940s and 1950s, Paul Robeson spoke on behalf of Puerto Rican liberation," Mr. Rovira said.

"Mr. Robeson was also very active in the fight to free Puerto Rican revolutionary leader Pedro Albizu Campos, our Malcolm X," Mr. Rovira told The Final Call.

But perhaps Sarita Winston, 30, who observed the protest while on her lunch break, described the real impact Mrs. Jackson is having.

"I�ve just started paying attention to this issue and I believe it�s because an African American woman of strength is involved," she said.

(Saeed Shabazz contributed to this article.)