Seeking Votes and Clout

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and Lowery of the S.C.L.C. did not support the measure. Says Lowery: "The process was stampeded by Jesse's campaign." The discussions were heated at times, but never at sessions where Jackson was present. Other leaders seemed reluctant to confront him. During one discussion Andrew Young challenged Jackson and said, "I consider myself in the 'family.' " Snapped Jackson: "Dick Hatcher is family. You're in the neighborhood."

Jackson's own plans, meanwhile, were acquiring momentum. "The black candidacy is an unfolding epic," he says. "It changes every day." While his fellow black leaders analyzed and deliberated, Jackson was touring the country on his voter-registration drive, hearing time and again the swelling chant from those at the grass roots who shared his vision without hesitancy or qualms. And Jackson, understandably enough, seemed to prefer the shouts of "Run, Jesse, run!" to the reservations of those less eager to see him embark on a crusade.

If Jackson runs, the foundation for his campaign will be provided by the network of black churches across the nation, still the most influential institution in the black community. In July, 125 ministers met in East St. Louis to form a Draft Jesse Jackson Committee, aimed at collecting 1 million signatures. They expect to have them by the end of this month. Jackson says that his backers have vowed to raise $250 from each of 40,000 black congregations, which would amount to a phenomenal $10 million war chest, more than has been raised so far by Walter Mondale and John Glenn combined. (Glenn and Mondale each hope to raise about $10 million by the end of the primary season.) In addition, because of the groundwork laid by almost two decades of participation, there is now a wealth of first-rate black political pros Jackson can draw upon. Among them: Ernest Green, an Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Carter; Ivanhoe Donaldson, chief political adviser to Washington Mayor Marion Barry; and Preston Love, a top official under Mayor Young in Atlanta.

Jackson has not made a final decision. A full-scale presidential campaign has obvious drawbacks. His private life would be put under a magnifying glass. His public life would become far more regimented Says M. Carl Holman, president of the National Urban Coalition: "Jesse is the world premier nonviolent guerrilla fighter, jumping from issue to issue, place to place. He doesn't like to be confined to schedules." Most troubling is the question of Jackson's safety. His friends fear that a black candidate could stir up violent kooks.

At the annual convention of Operation PUSH in Atlanta earlier this month, Jackson gathered his advisers in a 70th-floor suite to put together an exploratory committee. He wants to make sure that those who have indicated support will actually come through. "I don't want 'Run, Jesse, run!' to turn into 'See Jesse run!' " But his wife Jacqueline proudly sports a button that reads DAMN STRAIGHT! IT'S TIME FOR A BLACK PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, and Jackson is already acting as if he were running. At the moment, he is leaning toward a September announcement that would kick off with a three-day march through Mississippi, from the Ruleville grave of Civil Rights Crusader Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-77) to Indianola. Before then