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That last point is absolutely essential -- what is under discussion in most places today is an assault on the Democratic Party's nomination for the Presidency of the United States, and not an independent race for the White House.

Nonetheless, a June 5 Gallup Poll tells us that an independent race for President in 1984 by the Reverend Jesse Jackson against expected Republican nominee Ronald Reagan and possible Democratic nominee Walter Mondale would certainly and easily guarantee a Reagan victory.

It is important to note that Jackson who disavowed an independent candidacy, much as John Anderson did, he then ended his race for the Republican nomination and faced Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan as an independent in November, 1980.

Crusades are difficult to contain; constant celebrity almost impossible to abandon voluntarily.

The Gallup figures show that an independent Jackson candidacy in the November, 1984 general election would reduce Reagan's expected share of Black votes from 10% of the total cast to 7%.

Walter Mondale's expected 80% share of Black votes would be reduced to only 29%, causing his defeat, and the Rev. Jackson would end in third place with 48% of Black votes cast.

Gallup's projections are that 41% of all voters would choose Reagan, giving him another four year lease on the Presidency and another four-year noose around Black people's necks; Mondale would finish a close second, a position important only in horseshoes, with 40% of the total vote, and Rev. Jackson would come in last place with 9% of all votes cast.*

In this scenario, Jackson's gains are Mondale's losses, and while we may properly acknowledge that polls taken in early June 1983 may have

Gallup Poll, June 5, 1983