Book Description

Jesse Jackson is a modern day highway robber who uses cries of racism to steal from individuals, corporations, and government, to give to himself, says veteran investigative reporter Kenneth R. Timmerman.

Until now, however, no one has been brave enough to say it and diligent enough to prove it. But Ken Timmerman has cracked Jackson's machine, found Jackson cronies willing to break ranks, and uncovered a sordid tale of greed, ambition, and corruption from a self-proclaimed minister who has no qualms about poisoning American race relations for personal gain.

Shakedown reveals:

* Jackson's massive defrauding of the federal government - and how both Republican and Democratic administrations have chosen to ignore it.

* Jackson's financial ties to Third World dictators - including Mohammar Qaddafi of Libya.

* Jackson's shocking private life - and his even more shocking public lies, including about his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King

Other details must remain embargoed until publication, but one thing is for certain, Shakedown finally bursts the carefully constructed myths around Jesse Jackson and subject him to the critical scrutiny he's long deserved.

Kenneth R. Timmerman, a reporter with more than two decades of experience, has written for many magazines and newspapers including Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, and The American Spectator, and has appeared on Nightline, Sixty Minutes, and many other television programs. He lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife and five children. ... Read more

Reviews (121)

The dude do get over
The author has previously written for such unusally reliable sources as Time, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. There are 1,078 references in this book in 426 pages of text covering an introduction, a prologue, and 18 chapters. The references are from such sources as memoranda and reports from U.S. government agencies, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and the New Republic, to name only a few. The author, therefore, cannot be dismissed as some sort of right wing crackpot. What Timmerman does is document Jackson's unashamed schemes to line his own pockets and those of his friends and family in the name of racial diversity, economic opportunity, and other buzzwords popular with income redistribution leftists. But Jesse is the quintessential capitalist. He doesn't do anything he can't get paid for, to include NOT speaking up in favor of minority groups who have sought his assistance in the past but didn't have the money to pay his fee! SHAKEDOWN is an appropriate title for this work, as Jackson has managed to get governments and businesses to pony up for his schemes in order to keep from being branded as racist by Jackson. This book could have been subtitled "Show Me the Money!" He has definitely helped himself, and made himself rich in the process. Whether he has helped others is truly open to question, as the author has convincingly documented.

Excellent book, brilliantly researched and well written
It was very tough to put this book down. Timmerman has done an excellent job in researching this book, and backs up his research with copious notes.

If even one tenth of the book is accurate, Jesse Jackson is a very dangerous, dishonest, and evil character. I suspect that the overwhelming majority of the book is accurate, however, and that fact makes my blood boil at the thought of Jackson and his shakedown scheme.

This book should be required reading for every young liberal- Black, White, Brown-it doesn't matter. Jackson's evil tactics transcend race, religion, and creed. His hucksterism is a danger to this nation, a danger to the advancing civil rights of minorities, and a danger to honest people trying to make a living in America.

I highly recommend this book, I think that anyone who reads it with an open mind will thoroughly enjoy it.

Do Not Blame the Author - Blame Jackson
This book states the obvious. Most people half awake can see his scam a mile away. This is not a race issue; it is a scam that uses the race issue. It might not be PC to attack a black man, but when he uses the weakness in his fellow man black and white to enrich himself one needs to blow the whistle.

Let us give Jackson a small benefit of doubt. Years ago when he worked for King he was an idealistic young man. But that has long passed. We now have a man milking the system and taking what he can - it is as simple as that. And blame the people and corporations that support his habit.

An interesting look at how one obtains power.
At first, I just wanted to read the "lowdown" on how much of a crook Jesse Jackson was, but as I read more, I see how Jesse rises from being a mere street hustler to being a major pollitical force that is known throughout worldwide. As a person that wants to understand how and why a person obtains power of that magnitude, SHAKEDOWN gives great insight into how one man, Jesse Jackson, stategically picks not only the battles he wants to fight, but also his allies. A great companion book to this is THE 48 LAWS OF POWER by Robert Greene. Many of the laws of power in that book can be seen being used by Jesse in SHAKEDOWN. What really got me was one of the guys mentioned in this book was a pastor in my church who was "rubbing elbows" with Jackson and almost got put in jail by following him. Read this book, it's a real eye opener.

Wake Up America!!!!!!
I have always been a supporter of Jesse Jackson and looked upon him as a true leader..............until I read this book. This book has opened my eyes to just what kind of person Jesse Jackson really is: con-artist, extortionist, race-baiter, etc. The people in Chicago who refer to him as "Justme" Jackson, have really hit the nail on the head. What has the self-appointed leader of the African-American race ever done for poor and truly disinfranchised African-Americans? Not a damn thing!!! The only African-Americans who have ever benefited from his shakedowns and extortion of american corporations are his rich and well-to-do cronies! Why the IRS has never stepped in and audited this scheister and crook is a travesty! Jesse Jackson is only a leader for the well-to-do African-American, the ones who can pay to play. This man is no more interested in closing the racial divide that exists in America today, than the KKK is! He is one of the reasons that the racial divide has gotten wider, not smaller. Anyone who calls this book racist is either blind, deaf, and dumb, or is a racist themselves. This book is well documented and the facts well supported. Through it all, you have to give "Reverend" Justme Jackson credit. He has taken advantage of a society where it is worse to label someone a racist than it is to call someone a rapist or child molester. He has used the word racist as his trump card and thrown it about freely, when he himself is as racist as anybody. I wonder when the next time he is going to call as his friend some 3rd world dictator who has ravaged his homeland and committed innumerable atrocities on his people? And when he is long gone from this world, don't worry America, his sons will pick up the torch and continue this man's great, benevolent works in society. Oh yeah, after reading this book, I have changed my affiliation from Democrat to Republican, as has my African-American wife. ... Read more

Book Description

There are many heroes of the civil rights movement—men and women we can look to for inspiration. Each has a unique story, a path that led to a role as leader or activist. Death of Innocence is the heartbreaking and ultimately inspiring story of one such hero: Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till—an innocent fourteen-year-old African-American boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who paid for it with his life. His outraged mother’s actions galvanized the civil rights movement, leaving an indelible mark on American racial consciousness.

Mamie Carthan was an ordinary African-American woman growing up in 1930s Chicago, living under the strong, steady influence of her mother’s care. She fell in love with and married Louis Till, and while the marriage didn’t last, they did have a beautiful baby boy, Emmett.

In August 1955, Emmett was visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped from his bed in the middle of the night by two white men and brutally murdered. His crime: allegedly whistling at a white woman in a convenience store. His mother began her career of activism when she insisted on an open-casket viewing of her son’s gruesomely disfigured body. More than a hundred thousand people attended the service. The trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, accused of kidnapping and murdering Emmett (the two were eventually acquitted of the crime), was considered the first full-scale media event of the civil rights movement.

What followed altered the course of this country’s history, and it was all set in motion by the sheer will, determination, and courage of Mamie Till-Mobley—a woman who would pull herself back from the brink of suicide to become a teacher and inspire hundreds of black children throughout the country.

Mamie Till-Mobley, who died in 2003 just as she completed this memoir, has honored us with her full testimony: “I focused on my son while I considered this book. . . . The result is in your hands. . . . I am experienced, but not cynical. . . . I am hopeful that we all can be better than we are. I’ve been brokenhearted, but I still maintain an oversized capacity for love.” Death of Innocence is an essential document in the annals of American civil rights history, and a painful yet beautiful account of a mother’s ability to transform tragedy into boundless courage and hope. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

We Must Never Forget
For everyone who has heard of Emmett Till and sworn "never again" and for those who don't believe the horrors of life for too many Blacks in the South, this book is essential. This is a mother's story of the brutal murder of her young son and the travesty of justice that followed in a rural Mississippi town in the mid-1950's. She refused to let her son's murder be hidden, and it became an early rallying point for the Civil Rights Movement. Mamie Till-Mobley moves the rock under which the roaches of racism hide and exposes them to the bright light of truth. Her words are both inspirational and disturbing. We don't want to believe that this happened fifty years ago here in the "Land of the Free", but it did. We can't even tell ourselves that it could never happen now, because she tells us of a recent and terrifyingly similar murder of a young Black male in the South. Not far from where I live, four young men have just been charged with burning a cross in the yard of a Black family who had moved into a white neighborhood. Mamie Till-Mobley had her son's casket kept open so the world could see what was done to her son. Now, her book opens the "casket" of the buried past to show us once more.

Mamie Till-Mobley was a courageous woman whose story is very moving. She talks about her youth, her family, her relationship with Emmett, the lives of Blacks in the south and in Chicago. Her story would be an important one solely because she lost a child to violence. However, her story is much, much more. She stands with other Black women of the 20th century: Marian Anderson, Rosa Parks, Coreta Scott King, the mothers of the girls killed in the church bombings.

I believe strongly that we must continue to bear witness to these events, just as we must bear witness to Hitler's atrocities, and the mass murders that continue to occur around the globe. Remembering cannot cure the ignorance and hatred that accompany prejudice, but it can help to prevent repeats of these horrific events.

As I read this book, I was reminded of an editorial written over 30 years ago by Arthur M. Sackler. Speaking of the famine in Bangladesh and other mass deaths, he said, "Tears alone are not enough." I hope that everyone who reads the words of Emmett Till's mother will realize that tears are NOT enough - we must remain attentive and work diligently to wipe this kind of hatred from the face of the earth.

A Riveting Story Told By A Fascinating Woman
Mamie Till Mobley lost her only son, 14 year-old Emmett Till, to a hate crime in Money, Mississippi, on August 28, 1955. She was denied justice in a farcical trial in which the boy's murderers were set free. As much as it is the story of Emmett Till, it is also the story of a determined mother to dedicate the remainder of her life in supporting the civil rights movement, and as a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. She is a shining example of what we all should be, a positive influence on those we come into contact. She didn't spend her life in bitterness at her son's killers. She only hoped they would repent of their crime (they didn't), because their final Judge would not be a jury from the state of Mississippi. The killers found their so-called supporters had drifted away from them, because of the negative attention this crime brought to the area. Their business was boycotted by blacks, and their wives left them. Emmett Till was a sacrificial lamb that started the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and the subsequent contributions of his mother in touching the lives of those she came in contact with is something that can't be measured. The winners in this story are a mother, a child, and the country's awareness of the need for civil rights for all citizens, while the losers are the boy's killers. There is much to learn in this book, and Mamie Till Mobley continues to teach others through this book even though she passed from this world on January 6, 2003. I did find a date mistake listed twice. On page 121 the initial incident at the grocery store in Money, Mississippi, is listed as Wednesday, August 20th. It has to be August 24th, because Emmett Till left Chicago for Mississippi on Saturday, August 20th. This mistake is repeated in the pictures. The date is later corrected to Wednesday, August 24th, on pages 185 and 261. Although it is difficult to wonder how these mistakes slipped through a proofreader, in no way does it detract from the book.

Not a Documentary
It was such a good idea to write this book in the first person. It was far from a documentary-like book with long technical jargon and delves into history. It read just like a work of fiction. I would lose myself for hours, reading this. It was as if I was right there. After all the stories behind this tragedy I believe this is the actual factual account. Mamie Till firmly discredited all the lies surrounding Emmett's character. Though I did find one flaw. I didn't like how the fatal TRIP to Mississippi was dramatized. It was written that she could hardly function, eat, or sleep once he'd left for the vacation. Granted any mother will miss their child but to that extent seemed a bit farfetched. (And besides, Emmett had lived away from her once before upon her move to Detroit.) But in a sense, Emmett was baby Jesus, and Mamie;Mary. God chose him as a sacrifice to open the eyes of the world and take action against racism. JW Milam and Roy Bryant have long since been dead and I'm sure Emmett was waiting on the other side. Those animals are getting theirs for eternity. And the fact that Roy Bryant divorced the wife who's 'honor' he was supposedly defending, that was a slap in the face. All of them were poor white trash.

Moving and Powerful!! The Remembrance of a Matyr
I am a 20 year old black college student that is from Clarksdale, MS. This is a little Delta town near where Emmet's murder was committed and also is mentioned in the book. The horrors described in this book are ones that every child from the Delta is aware of and is cautioned about. The men that murdered Emmett were brutal, merciless, tyrants that deserved the death penalty.
This book moved me to tears simply because of the fact that Mrs. Till never hated or wanted revenge for these men. She just wanted them to show some remorse and hoped that their little boys didn't grow up with the same kind of hatred that killed her son. This book clarified a lot of the myths that I have heard over the years about his death and also showed how strong and determined his mother was. He was her only child, the only boy, and yet she pushed and kept on fighting for him. They brought him home in a box filled with lime so he could deteriorate faster, and she said he didn't even look human, but she fought and never lost in the war of racism. She opened that box that was sealed by the state of Mississippi, and said "let the world see what I've seen". I think that this book is an eye-opener for anyone not familiar with Mississippi and for people that are, it is a raw look at the ugly truth. Mrs. Till went on to become a teacher and influenced lots of more kids with the passion that she would have given Emmett, and I thank her for this look into a heart that was wounded beyond repair and thanks to God, she made it. We made it. Emmett will never be forgotten, his story lives on still.

An American Portrait
This act of terrorism, committed by Americans, against an American, occurred less than fifty years ago. Some of the people who were involved in the kidnapping, brutal beating, shooting and the tying of this fourteen year old child to a huge gin fan and throwing his body into the Tallahatchie River, may still be alive today...
I enjoyed Rev. Jesse Jackson 's rousing, sermon-styled introduction which leads you into the story. It gradually, becomes clear why Mrs. Till-Mobley felt it necessary to include a detailed story of her son's life. I think it was important to her that the reader pay special attention to how he was treated by his family. It's more than obvious that Alma Gaines (Emmett's maternal grandmother) instilled in them the belief that every life has value, that there are none so special to enjoy "preferential, common dignities". I suspect, in that day, they were considered "uppity" because they dared consider themselves just as good. They simply took the words from American doctrine and, rightfully, made them their own. They understood, more profoundly than many, then and today, that American privilege is not supposed to be about color, but about the implication of democracy, and that as human beings, we are all endowed with a fundamental right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's unfortunate and destructive, how some Americans feel privileged on the basis of their skin color. This ideal not only divides us among other countries it's also eating away at us from within.
If you are of the "unspoken, privileged class" of America, for a moment, try to reduce your "rights" to a fundamental level. You'll then be closer to a reality that Emmett could have been your son, nephew, grandson, uncle, brother or husband - this is the African American experience. Perhaps the most frightening truth is that America isn't so far removed from this event, socially, where we can say it couldn't happen today.
(...)Had Emmett not taken his father's ring on his trip to Mississippi, and been showing it off to everyone he'd met there (a seed of evidence for things unseen) they wouldn't have been able to identify his body. So, to the local authorities, it would have just been another insignificant Black body found floating in the Tallahatchie River. It may seem that all Mamie Till instilled in her son, including the method for taming his stutter, led to his unfortunate demise, but the river runs much deeper. Emmett's story is more than the act committed against him. His death brought about a consciousness raising that would change American history forever.
Pages 132 -137 tell the gruesome, and sorrowful, story of her ordeal identifying Emmett's body. I found it disturbing, being a parent, yet I had to re-read it several times to try and make sense of what could drive human beings to commit such a crime. I recommend you obtain a copy of this book, if only to read these four pages and I guaranty they will quell your innocence forever and perhaps change your entire worldview.
The story of Emmett Till deserves to be petitioned into our history books because it is, without question, a raw portrait of our America. No one can decry this story. It can't be discounted as an untruth fabricated by a self-promoting charlatan. That his murder did occur, under these circumstances, can never be doubted.
Christopher Benson sums up Mother Mobley's character eloquently. He writes that though she may have retired from teaching years ago, that was just "an administrative detail". She continued to teach far beyond her retirement, and she still does. There are lessons here about humanity, bravery, cowardice, love, and of course the evils we can be driven to out of hate and fear all doused with select pearls of wisdom on the intricacies of parenthood. You'll bear witness to a spiritual journey as she "walks through" her grief, on to understanding that the meaning of our lives sometimes paints a larger picture than we could have ever imagined.
I'm grateful that she did finally get to share her story. I can't help but feel honored to have read it. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first unauthorized biography of the Rev. JesseJackson.It was first published in 1975 as Jesse Jackson, the man, themyth and the movement. it was updated after jackson's 1984presidentialrace.at its inception the book was viewed as a betrayal as breaking the black codes which usually call for blackauthors to protect rather thanto expose the flaws of black leaders.this book was the first to exposeas myths or lies that jackson was on the balcony of the Memphis lorraine hotel when Dr. King was assassinated as was claimed and that Jackson's programs helped the poor. the book also dealt with his private life,mwhich at the time was ground journalists did not plow. the book, however,rightly predicted that he would rise to unprecendented fame and power. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Truth pressed to earth will rise again
Barbara Reynolds caught hell when she published this book. It was the first to expose several "facts" about the Jesse Jackson myth as false. The assasination story, the growing up in a shack story, the curious finances of Operation Breadbasket and Jackson's personal life were all exposed. Reynolds eventually had to leave Chicago and the book although widely read was rarely mentioned in public.Today Keith Timmerman's book Shakedown is on the bestseller lists. It turns out that Barbarawas right all along. ... Read more

Amazon.com

No other biographer has come as close as Marshall Frady has to correctly telling the story and understanding the mind of Jesse Jackson, arguably the most fascinating figure in contemporary American politics. Frady, who followed Jackson for years and had extensive access to him, rarely gets in the way when recounting Jackson's remarkable history from his humble background in Greenville, South Carolina, to his stirring campaign for the presidency. Frady also explains how Jackson can be viewed as both a political egomaniac and a great moral leader, a biographical synthesis that shows how deftly Frady has captured his subject. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good and balanced view of a controversial individual
Neither a smear sheet or puff piece, this is a very objective and thorough look at the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Here you see both the good and bad. The infamous "King's blood" incident, the womanizing, the crudity and rudeness (that I've had the misfortune to expereince once), and the scandals are all here minus the Angela Parker case in 1971, oddly.

However, Frady does not let the reader forget the good that Jesse Jackson has done for society. We also him getting tearful Israeli and Palestinian children to come together in peace. We see him trying to unify poor Whites and Blacks in America (who even THINKS of doing that anymore?), we see him encouraging Black kids to forego delinquency and do better in school (I first saw him on one such occasion in 1978), and we see the successful instances in which he helped in the release of hostages. We also see that contrary to popular (mis)beleif, he has encouraged far more cooperation among the races than this far lesser contemporaries among what remains of "Black leadership."

Frady lets the reader know that in spite of Rev. Jesse Jackson's considerable and numerous flaws, the good that he has done cannot be dismissed.

In spite of this, there is a minor complaint. Frady gets to be a bit much with the dialect in trying to capture Rev. J/J's speech patters ("Yawl," "Great Gawd a mighty," "Looka heah," etc.).

A vivid portrait of an American original
"Jesse" is a compelling examination of the fascinating life and times of an American original, civil rights leader and two-time presidential contender Jesse Jackson. This detailed, nuanced biography benefits from the author's nearly thirty years covering Jackson as a journalist, as well as the access Frady was granted his subject as a frequent traveling companion and from many interviews with Jackson, his family and colleagues. As a result, Frady has been able to create a intimate account of his subject's life and thought which seemingly allows the reader to get inside Jackson's head and understand his motivations and actions. Striving for a balanced portrayal, Frady does not shy away from Jackson's faults; commendably, he deals with them in a frank, fair manner while avoiding sensationalism. Ultimately, Frady suggests, all of Jackson's activities, from his early work with PUSH and Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, to his presidential campaigns and his incessant world travels, have been motivated by a common spirit of "gospel populism" and a desire to be seen not simply as a black leader but as a moral leader with a vision that transcends racial, cultural and economic boundaries. "Jesse" is not a perfect book; it seems at times a bit lengthy, and often Frady devotes seemingly endless attention to minor or obscure events and breezes over major ones (example: we repeatedly hear references and anecdotes about Jackson's 1989 trip to earthquake-stricken Armenia, but his 1988 speech at the Democratic National Convention - probably his most memorable public moment - is cursorily dispatched in two sentences). "Jesse" is probably not, as one reviewer suggested, the definitive biography of Jesse Jackson, but it is an important key to understanding the man, and in the absence of a definitive portrait, it will no doubt be the best Jackson biography available for a very long time. ... Read more