Jackson's Protest

LOS ANGELES: Most Academy Awards presenters ignored the Reverend Jesse Jackson's campaign to protest of the lack of black nominees. (Only one of 166 is black.) Jackson, head of the Rainbow Coalition, voiced his displeasure while leading a 75-person demonstration at KABC-TV studios in Los Angeles: "It's good that we have raised the consciousness of Hollywood. We're going to form a rainbow covenant and take it to the studio heads and to the stars. There's a lack of creativity and opportunity, leaving stories untold." The lone black nominee, Dianne Houston, was nominated in the best live action short category for "Tuesday Morning Ride," and she lost. Protesters also gathered outside local ABC affiliates in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. Yet the show went off without a hitch. "There were no visible demonstrations," TIME's Joelle Attinger reports. "Hollywood is very much a bubble, and it remained that way on Oscar night." Jackson called on participants in the show to wear a rainbow ribbon to show their support. Co-producer Quincy Jones, who is black, wore a ribbon, but host Whoopi Goldberg did not. Attinger reports that red AIDS ribbons were far more prevalent. Goldberg, however, did refer to Jackson in her monologue: "I had something I wanted to say to Jesse Jackson, but he's not watching, so forget it."