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To: Miss Marple
but how about JESSE JACKSON? The Time.com article on Ebbers this week says that Jackson was a supporter.

I haven't found one either, and I don't know about the Jackson angle - after all, one of his main stocks in trade is simply the extortion of money from large firms to bankroll his Rainbow Coalition.

84 posted on 06/26/2002 7:41:36 AM PDT by Chairman_December_19th_Society
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To: Chairman_December_19th_Society
Ebbers DIDN'T give in to the extortion, apparently. Here is the pertinent passage from the article:

Way back in 1998 when the economy still was new, WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers was clinching his acquisition of long-distance giant MCI, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson had a bone to pick with him. Speaking at Tougaloo College--a cradle of the civil rights movement located near Clinton, Miss., where WorldCom is headquartered--Jackson rhetorically asked his audience why Ebbers could afford $37 billion for MCI but hadn't donated funds to local black students. Ebbers wasn't present, but LeRoy Walker Jr., a leading black businessman and Tougaloo board member, pulled Jackson aside to set him straight: Ebbers had given Tougaloo more than $1 million along with new information technology. Ebbers had also helped Walker purchase a country club and computers to be used by disadvantaged black youth. "Bernie Ebbers," Walker told Jackson, "is my mentor."

Jackson was won over: yet another of Ebbers' conquests.

90 posted on 06/26/2002 8:31:28 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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