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The civil rights leader had withheld giving what he called a "signal" to his supporters in the weeks following the Democratic convention. He was convinced that blacks were not being given a role within the party establishment that was commensurate with their voting power. Predicting that blacks could account for 30% of the votes cast for Mondale in November, Jackson said, "For that level of involvement, one wants equity and not just jobs." In a flip remark he later apologized for, Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, an early Mondale supporter, expressed a similar frustration about the Democratic campaign last month, calling the candidate's staff "smart-ass white boys who think they know it all."
In the euphoria of the St. Paul summit, Young conceded, "A lot of folk I thought were smart asses are a lot smarter than I thought they were." Jackson was more cautious, saying that his goal of "peer politics" for blacks within the party "is beginning to take place in ways that are mutually respectful." Translation: Mondale agreed to parts—but not all—of the so-called black agenda, which includes support for certain domestic and foreign policies as well as prominent roles for blacks in the Mondale organization.
Mondale announced the appointment of two blacks to high-level campaign posts. Maynard Jackson will serve as a senior counselor on policy matters. For the key job of directing voter-registration drives, Mondale rewarded a black who had supported him from the beginning of his candidacy: Detroit Mayor Coleman Young. The candidate also promised, if elected, to seek the advice of blacks on administering social programs.
Mondale further agreed to deliver a speech addressing foreign policy issues of concern to blacks. These were left unspecified, but the request raised the question of whether Jackson and other blacks were advocating a foreign policy agenda more radical than that of the party's. One clear priority is a strong condemnation of the Reagan policy toward South Africa; most blacks, and other Democratic activists, correctly believe that the Administration has done little to discourage Pretoria's apartheid practices. On other international issues, Jackson has broken not only with Administration positions but with those of his party's leadership. During his trips abroad, for example, he contended that U.S. blacks share a special rapport with revolutionaries in the Third World since both have been victims of colonial-style repression. Some party leaders fear that such a view could lead to a fundamental rift over foreign policy along racial lines.
Anticipating another field of concern, Mondale took pains to observe that one area of continuing disagreement between him and Jackson is U.S. policy toward the Middle East. The former Vice President thus signaled that he has no thought of accommodating the Palestinian sympathies frequently voiced by Jackson. Those opinions seem to be far from universal within the black community. Nearly all of the 21 members of the congressional black caucus, for example, have strongly pro-Israeli voting records.