Special Section: 50 Faces for America's Future

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federal control and regulation of the economy. Says he: "If you want the Government off your back, get your hand out of the Government's pocket." Handsome, lean and angular, Hart received a bachelor's degree from the Yale Divinity School, plus a Yale law degree. The role that brought him political attention, if not success, was directing Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972. Today he is gaining favor in the Senate. Says conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Hart: "You can disagree with him politically, but I have never met a man who is more honest and more moral."

23. William Hensley, 38, an Eskimo, grew up in northwest Alaska living as a nomad. After catching the attention of teachers in the town of Kotzebue, he boldly set out for the nation's capital, where he got a degree in political science from George Washington University. In 1966 Hensley returned to Alaska to lead the struggle for native rights. As a state legislator, he flew to Washington more than 100 times to help keep the land claims issue before Congress. In 1971 Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that gave Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts nearly $1 billion and 40 million acres of land. Hensley now heads the influential development arm of the Northwest Alaska Native Association (NANA), one of 13 regional corporations created by the act to manage Alaskan native assets. Under his tenure, NANA has built rural schools, offices, rescue stations and even owns a reindeer herd of 4,200 head to provide meat to northwest natives. Hensley, who speaks English, Russian and Inupiaq (an Eskimo language in western Alaska), lost a bid for his state's sole House seat in 1974, but is often introduced by Alaskans as "our next Senator."

24. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, 37. "Down with dope! Up with hope!" shouts Jackson to a crowd of 10,000 enthusiastic teenagers. His mission is to inspire ghetto youngsters to change their lives by studying hard. A former aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson has spent the past three years taking his Chicago-based PUSH-EXCEL program to schools across the country. PUSH-EXCEL requires teachers to assign homework, students to study two hours a night, and parents to provide support. Follow-up programs are sometimes weak and the long-range effectiveness remains to be seen, but some PUSH-EXCEL programs have produced lower absentee rates and higher morale. Says Jackson: "Affirmative action is a moot question if you don't learn to read and write." And at graduation, he wants voter registration cards handed out with diplomas.

25. Hamilton Jordan, 34, wrote a shrewd, sensitive 72-page memo sketching out in brilliant detail in 1972 the course Candidate Jimmy Carter had to follow from Plains, Ga., to the White House. Carter seldom wavered from Jordan's plans. Ever since, Jordan has been the President's top political strategist, and this month was officially named White House Chief of Staff—even though critics claim Jordan embodied some of the Administration's most serious managerial flaws. Jordan has a swift, conceptual mind, reads political moods and trends skillfully, and although he is personally disorganized is highly imaginative. Jordan looks and sometimes acts like a fraternity boy—though he has lately switched from khakis and boots to pinstripe suits—and