Jackson asks banks to stop foreclosures during holidays

The Rev. Jesse Jackson asked Georgia banks on Monday evening to boycott Tuesday's home foreclosure auction.

"We're asking banks to withdraw," Jackson said from the steps of the Federal Home Loan Bank in Midtown.

In asking for the holiday moratorium from foreclosures, Jackson pointed to Wachovia Bank's decision to pull out of the auction in October, saving more than 1,400 homes from foreclosure.

"Why should banks subsidized by the government and protected by insurance paid for by homeowners put people out on their homes at Christmas?" he asked.

Jackson, a long-time civil rights activist who founded the Chicago-based Rainbow/P.U.S.H. Coalition, said he and his organizers would be on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse on Tuesday morning calling out banks that ignore his call for a reprieve.

"We know the banks that have loans in the state," he said. "We'll have a roll call."