Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner - June 12, 2000
Ilene Lelchuk of the Examiner Staff
"It will attract media attention and public education," Jackson said Sunday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, at which he also chastised the civic leaders for not taking full advantage of their power and celebrity to address other major issues vexing cities.
Jackson's call for immediate action met mixed reactions from the mayors at the conference, whose overriding theme was the presidential race - not health care and stopping the spread of AIDS.
Mayor Willie Brown, a longtime friend of the civil rights activist, said he takes an HIV test every six months as part of his regular physical examination. He called Jackson's challenge "interesting."
New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, one of the conference leaders, used the same word - interesting - but said he would not be taking medical tests in public or releasing results.
"This is a very personal thing with me," said Morial, who in the past has refused requests by local media for his medical records.
On the other hand, Roosevelt Dorn, mayor of the city of Inglewood in Los Angeles County, was excited to answer Jackson's challenge.
"I'm going to publicly make it known that I'm going to take the test and I'm going to challenge my City Council to take it, too," Dorn said. "And I'm going to encourage young people to take the test."
Jackson told the mayors Sunday that two-thirds of the people who have HIV don't know it. Last week, Jackson encouraged 100 ministers to take HIV tests, and he is trying to broaden his campaign to mayors and other city leaders such as police and fire chiefs.
Jeff Getty, spokesman for Survive AIDS in San Francisco, welcomed Jackson's campaign.
"I'm glad Jesse Jackson is making it a priority. It's been a long time coming," he said. "We have these perceptions that if someone admits to taking an HIV test, it's like admitting that they might have a sex life, or even worse, an active sex life. But we shouldn't be thinking that way. It's good (to take the test). It's conscientious."
Jackson also urged mayors to use their prestige to force changes in their schools, jails and business communities. He encouraged mayors to buy stock, for example, in the big corporations dominating their cities' economies, such as Microsoft in Seattle. Jackson argued that being a stockholder would not be a conflict of interest. "Just as citizens have rights to go to city council meetings, mayors have the right to go to shareholder meetings," Jackson said.
He chided the 250 or so mayors at the five-day conference, which started Friday, for not doing more. Although affordable housing, schools and gun control are on the agenda, the mayors have not made the same kind of innovative policy announcements that they made in past years.
"I'm a bit uneasy about the kind of quietness of this conference," said Jackson.
Morial of New Orleans said the conference leaders wanted to give the presidential candidates, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore, prime attention this year so the mayors can judge who best will serve cities from the White House.
Gore addressed the group Friday, and Bush was scheduled to speak via satellite Monday.
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