The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke Tuesday with The State’s editorial board and reporters. He said he plans to return to South Carolina. more often to help build a coalition to challenge inequities, citing such issues as a lack of diversity in the judiciary and the imbalance of blacks in prisons. Here are excerpts from the wide-ranging, 1¼-hour interview:

On the lack of black judges in the state’s major courts

JACKSON: “On the same day we were losing lives in Iraq fighting for proportional representation and inclusive government, there was a walkout here in Columbia because of a scheme that denies fair representation of judges. Just as we in a democracy govern with the consent of the governed, we must judge with the consent of the judged.

The present scheme, of course, results in what was essentially embarrassing for some, humiliating of others and just ... the way we do business for others. But it’s not fair.

All we really want is representative democracy.

We must look at litigation and legislation and demonstration,” he said, referring to the possibility of a lawsuit to overturn the state’s system.

On whether politics would corrupt publicly elected judges

JACKSON: “Judges are as capable of being as honest as state representatives are, as state senators are, and Congress people are. So this fear of corrupting judges is yet again trying to neutralize the rightful thought process, using fear.”

On the criticism that there are few black attorneys and they don’t want to give up their private practices to serve on the bench.

JACKSON: “That’s like saying in ’64 you couldn’t find enough blacks who wanted to use the toilets downtown. It’s ridiculous. It’s insultingly ridiculous that blacks don’t want to be judges. Very qualified people have applied ... and they are eliminated through a collection, selection, election racial process.

The standards for election have to do with ideology, not what serves justice.”

On Greenville County, where he is from, being among the last in the nation to honor Martin Luther King’s birthday with a legal holiday.

JACKSON: “In many ways it was a 19-year struggle that took up lots of energy to do the obvious, that they should recognize a King holiday as part of the ... mood of our country. It says a lot about the kind of hostility in the area and in this state.”

On the state of the war in Iraq and the moral authority of the U.S. military presence there.

JACKSON: “We’re losing our national honor in isolation. Democracy overnight at gunpoint, I’m not going to beat my chest over that. We are losing this war ... and we have no idea how we’re going to get out.”

Citing the death of three former Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School students in Iraq, Jackson said, “The poorest kids are dying. To the rich, the Iraq war is academic because they are not going and their children are not going.”

On the disenfranchised voting for President Bush

JACKSON: “They’re cutting veterans’ benefits. Veterans voted for this guy. Oops. Those who are feeling the hatchet today, they were getting the warm-and-fuzzy treatment back in October.”