Rev. Jesse Jackson Caught on Audio Recording Unleashing in Tirade Against Reagan & U.S. South

The U.S. south is "the land of the free, the home of genocide," civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson repeatedly said Wednesday in a speech that also implied former President Ronald Reagan was a racist.

College news outlet Campus Reform provided TheBlaze an audio recording of Jackson telling students at Furman University that Reagan and former presidential candidate Barry Goldwater both sought to sustain segregation.

“Goldwater and Reagan – had they been successful, it would have been illegal for blacks and whites to play together on a Saturday afternoon,” he said. "You couldn't have had the Carolina Panthers behind the cotton curtain playing the Atlanta Falcons ... it would have been illegal."

Rev. Jesse Jackson talks with journalists at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Jackson is returning to the US without meeting with American government subcontractor Alan Gross detained in Havana since 2009. (AP)

Jackson doubled down on his claim, saying basketball legend Michael Jordan could have never played basketball at the University of North Carolina had Reagan and Goldwater had their way.

“Michael Jordan couldn't have gone to UNC ... it would have been ineligible for him to play at UNC,” he said. “You couldn't have had the Olympics in Atlanta Georgia. You couldn’t have had the Dallas Cowboys in Houston, Texas, you couldn't have had the Super Bowl in New Orleans or in Atlanta or in Jacksonville or Miami.”

The civil rights icon also touched on the controversy over the Washington Redskin's name in his speech commenting on race.

“How about pictures we see of Indians stabbing the cowboys?" he asked. "In reality what happened was if If you killed an Indian ... finally you got paid for the scalps of the red skins of the Indians…and that’s how we got the Washington Redskins football league.”

Jackson's speech was reportedly met with some controversy on campus with several students protesting his speech outside and handing anti-Jackson leaflets to individuals.

“It’s a shame that Furman decided to celebrate such a historical event with such a divisive individual such as Rev. Jackson,” student Lauren Cooley, who organized that protest, told Campus Reform.

“He’s been stirring up division for years through outlandish anti-Semitic, anti-white, and anti-conservative statements,” Cooley added.

(H/T: Campus Reform)

This post has been updated.

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