FOR JESSE, A NON-POLITCAL PARTY

JACKSON CELEBRATES HIS 48TH WITH A FEW HUNDRED FRIENDS

In his new year, which he starts tomorrow, Jesse Jackson has a chance to be Phil Donahue or Oprah Winfrey. Or, to look further down the road, to be Marion Barry or George Bush.

Last night, however, as more than 1,000 people crowded into an early 48th-birthday party, organized by Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition and costing a minimum of $50 per person, Jackson was discussing the talk show mantle but not any specific political jobs. Surrounded by the ever-present cameras, his family and close friends such as activist Dick Gregory and civil rights leader Dorothy Height, Jackson said the year will be "another year of work, another year of opportunity to serve. I want to be a good citizen in our new community and to work for a new birthday in Washington, D.C."

Even as he sidestepped the political questions that were uppermost in many of the guests' minds -- particularly a run for Washington's mayoral seat -- few others were shy about giving their points of view. Mayor Barry led that list.

"I'm glad you moved from Chicago. This is a better town and has a better mayor," said Barry. "I'm looking forward to voting for you" -- and Barry gave a long stage-like pause -- "again in 1992." The mayor's reference to the next presidential election year drew scattered laughter.

With a party going on across the street from the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill for the organizers of the "Housing Now!" march, the Jackson celebration became a stopover for many celebrity and political faces. "When they asked me to do it, they said it was Janet Jackson's birthday. But now I'm here so I might as well work," joked the evening's emcee, actor Louis Gossett Jr. Looking directly at the Jackson table, where sidelined Redskins quarterback Doug Williams and radio personality Casey Kasem had joined the party, Gossett said, "May you have many, many more until we get to vote for you again."

"I'm a Jesse Jackson fan, whatever that means," said Williams. "He is so in tune with black America and we need that." The football star attracted his own circle of picture takers and autograph seekers. Everyone inquired about his back injury; "I'm hanging tough," he replied.

The Jackson birthday rainbow was both bipartisan and international.

Armstrong Williams, director of government and community affairs for B&C Associates, a well-known Republican consulting firm, gave Jackson a gift of $1,000. "It is not so much support of the man himself but what he represents. He has been a beacon of light to show people where they have been and where they can go."

Williams added that he thought Jackson's recent endorsement of statehood for the city meant that he was lining himself up for a U.S. Senate seat. Asked about that, Jackson said, "It is premature."

Watching from a side table what his staff affectionately calls "Jackson Action" were Janice and Richard Akel, who moved to the United States from New Zealand five years ago. "When we moved here, Jackson was the only politician addressing fundamental social needs," said Richard Akel, an attorney.

Nearby a delegation of high-ranking diplomats from Angola was being introduced to some guests by Benjamin Chavis, executive director for the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. "He managed to do things that some time ago were considered unbelievable. He is devoted to the African cause," said Angolan Foreign Minister Pedro Van Dunem Loy.

The news that Jackson was joining the sometimes tempestuous arena of television talk shows next year with the syndicated "Voices of America With Jesse Jackson" was still being mulled over by his supporters. "No doubt about it, he will be more charismatic {than other talk show hosts} . But rather than having a show of political overtones I hope it's a show of action," said Washington attorney Phillip Williams.

Longtime Jackson friend Marcus Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies said the plan reminded him of another politician's dabbling in the media and presidency. "I think it is very similar to what Ronald Reagan did in the '50s and '60s when he had television, radio and a column. In a way, it is a mode of organizing beyond political parties. It brings pressure to the political parties because you are always in their face." Asked if Jackson would mind the comparison, Raskin smiled and said, "In the sense that Reagan got to be president of the United States, I don't think Jesse would mind."

When Jackson took over the podium, after a long lineup of presenters, including a video message from entertainer Bill Cosby, he talked about the forthcoming syndicated television show as his real birthday present. But then he quickly switched to the subject of statehood. "I want a new home ... a new Washington, which you can never have under the old circumstances. ... When the president can have an education conference in Virginia and not invite a Washington educator because it doesn't have a governor -- I have come to liberate the nation's capital," Jackson said.

The mayorshould be only one of many city leaders, he added. "We should have a governor, a lieutenant governor, two senators.

"As long as I live I intend to speak. That is my gift."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.