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ET'S TALK BLACK TALK
Fifteen years ago, over breakfast at Washington, D.C.'s National Airport, presidential candidate Jesse Jackson uttered those four words to Milton Coleman. Coleman was then a national political reporter at the Washington Post, covering the campaign. He motioned Jackson to go ahead. As Coleman wrote in a first-person piece in the Post's Outlook section some twoand-a-half months later, after a major controversy developed over Jackson's remarks, "Jackson then talked about the preoccupation of some with Israel. He said something to the effect of the following: "That's all Hymie wants to talk about, Israel; every time you go to Hymietown, that's all they want to talk about: "
Coleman, who had no notebook or tape recorder, made a mental note of Jackson's remarks; he knew this conversation was important. Coleman had talked to other reporters on the Jackson campaign and they'd heard the same thing. He therefore considered Jackson's talk "sorta semi-public."
The week after the airport conversation, fellow Post reporter Rick Atkinson called Coleman in New Hampshire. Atkinson was writing a story on Jackson's relationship with Jewish Americans and asked Coleman if he could arrange an interview with Jackson for him. Coleman agreed, telling Atkinson that there were two things he needed to know if he was going to do the story: One, he should interview Chicago xvl it.er and political consultant Don Rose. who'd earlier talked to Coleman about Jackson's general pl oblem with white lib*rals; that is, that many are Jewish and felt that Jackson \Nas an anti-Semite. Second]ly, Coleman told Atkinson about Jackson's "Hymietown" remarks. adding that Atkinson...