When the Rev. Jesse Jackson went to Decatur, Ill., urging that seven students expelled for fighting be readmitted to school, media slings and arrows were launched quickly. The high-profile civil rights leader�s activism was attacked by pundits and the media as another example of "Jesse�s hogging the spotlight."

Whether you like Rev. Jackson or not, the media attacks on him are troubling and again point to how the "mainstream press" continues to question the integrity of Black people� and it needs to stop.

In this case, it was Rev. Jackson, but other attacks have included smearing the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Marcus Garvey, and even Martin Luther King, Jr.

White journalists have had the audacity to ask if Rev. Jackson would defend these students if they were white. They overlook his missions to Serbia, Cuba and Iran where those rescued were white. A more important question is whether the media would be so vicious if a white leader would have gone to the rescue of the Decatur students.

The bottom line of such attacks is to portray high-profile Blacks�especially leaders not sanctioned by the white establishment�as having no integrity, and never moving beyond narrow self-interest.

After all, integrity would mean that Blacks have a sense of higher purpose and selflessness that contradicts the "Blacks have no souls" lie historically used to justify slavery, exploitation and mistreatment. So Black leaders are thoroughly checked for flaws�whether real or imagined. But America�s founding fathers�slaveholding, sexist, elitists�are icons of virtue, and any shortcomings are reflections of the time, not their moral failures.

The danger of these attacks is not only to the leader�s reputation, but they can also lead to physical threats and government harassment.