The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson’s presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 represented a touchstone moment in American politics. Jackson’s progressive message helped to transform the Democratic Party and showed the nation the possibility of Black candidate running for the nation’s highest office. Chants of his signature phrase, “Keep Hope Alive”, and his campaign slogan, “Run Jesse Run,” singled out a new movement in the democratic process.
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Running on the platform of the “Rainbow Coalition“—a multiracial, multiethnic alliance- Jackson, building on the work of his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Poor People’s Campaign,” sought to be a voice for those marginalized by the era’s conservative economic policies. Amazingly, Jackson was able to include African Americans, Latinos, poor farmers, the LGBTQ community, and the working class as his base.
While his 1984 bid was seen as historic and symbolic, he emerged as a political force to be reckoned with in 1988. Eventually, he won 13 primaries and caucuses and briefly led the field of Democrats in delegates. Jackson’s campaigns inspired legions of Black Americans to pursue political careers.
Four decades after his presidential runs, the prevailing question is “Why didn’t Jesse Jackson win?” While he didn’t capture the Democratic nomination, according to the Rev. Dr. William Barber, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, one must utilize another calculus when it comes to judging what winning really is.
In 1984, Barber was a senior at North Carolina Central University and president of the student government when he first met Jackson, who was scheduled to speak to a group of students. At the time, Jackson was campaigning and registering young Black voters. With his magnetic personality, undeniable charisma, and his bold, inclusive vision, Barber immediately discovered that Jackson was not just another politician.
“We heard somebody talking about the issues that mattered to us. He was saying the word “poverty,” saying that his constituency was the “damned” and “dismissed.” We hadn’t heard that before,” Barber to The Root. “To hear someone do an entire speech and never mention his opponent in a negative way, calling us to action, telling us the power we had. We volunteered and began registering voters at Central and North Carolina A&T.”
“I knew right then he wasn’t just running as a “Black candidate,” Barber continued. “He was running and talking about the “Rainbow Coalition” where every color is distinct, but no color or community can be dismissed.”
When asked to share his thoughts on why Jackson did not win the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, Barber said that the contributions of Jackson to expand the concept of democracy as a Black man at that time are greater than “wins and losses” could quantify. Barber argued that Jackson’s campaign became the authentic blueprint for the “Big Tent” ideals of the Democratic Party.
“When I hear people saying he didn’t win, I say that people don’t understand that winning has many dimensions. It’s not just about winning a political office. There are ways to talk about what he did,” said Barber. “He brought in10 million new voters. He won in Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Mississippi, and came in second in Tennessee.”
Barber also noted that Jackson’s campaign managed to impact millions of people with early voting or same-day registration, as “Black and white people broke through the walls of the Southern Strategy.”
According to Barber, Jackson was instrumental in expanding the Democratic Party as his campaign “changed the rules, and brought all people in.”
”Listen to his speeches. He made people feel like they had a place, and it’s the only way you’re going to turn back authoritarianism,” Barber explained.
While there were many factors at play that led to Jackson not receiving the Democratic nomination during his historic presidential runs, the impact of his game-changing platform still reverberates in the political sphere today. Even though many did not give Jackson his flowers in his lifetime, his courageous runs became the playbook that Democrats have used time and time again.
Undoubtedly, Jackson’s legacy as a historical political figure and a global diplomat is etched in stone. Now it is up to us, Barber contended, to carry on his mission of freedom, justice, and equality.
Barber argued that Jackson’s work not only “prepared the way for Barack Obama,” but he also helped candidates win governorships across the South in 1992, and Bill Cilton was elected because of Jesse’s work in previous election cycles.
Instead of celebrating Jackson’s life, Barber challenged all those who subscribe to his philosophy and ideals to “pick up the baton” and join his “vision of society.”
“Somebody asked me whether we should be celebrating Jesse’s life? I said, ‘No. You don’t do that with a prophet. You commemorate them by finding out the things they did, and you recommit yourself,” said Barber. “ That’s the greatest way to honor a prophetic figure like Jesse Jackson.”
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