How Jesse Jackson Transformed American Politics

"Now a new book, Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power, by Abby Phillip, the Emmy Award-winning CNN anchor, provides a compelling narrative that proves Sanders's point. Phillip traces Jackson's remarkable journey up from poverty in Greenville, South Carolina, still ruled by Jim Crow segregation, through working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in SCLC, creating PUSH-People United to Save Humanity-in Chicago, to his historic 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns."

"Phillip demonstrates how Jackson transformed American politics, registering and rousing millions of African Americans to vote, demonstrating the power of a Voting Rights Act the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court is on the verge of gutting. Jackson's campaigns helped Democrats take back the Senate in 1986, and kicked down the door for others to follow, including David Dinkins, the first African American Mayor of New York City, Paul Wellstone, the progressive Senator from Minnesota,"

"Phillip argues that much of Jackson's agenda, scorned as radical in the 1980s, is now conventional wisdom. At a time when the United States embraced apartheid South Africa as an ally and tarred Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, Jackson argued correctly that Mandela was a freedom fighter, and the South African government were the terrorists. He called for statehood for Palestinians and welcomed Arab Americans into his coalition a decade before it became common sense."

Jesse Jackson rose from poverty in Greenville, South Carolina, under Jim Crow segregation to national prominence through work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and by founding PUSH—People United to Save Humanity—in Chicago. His 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns registered and mobilized millions of African American voters and pressured Democratic Party rules, helping elect diverse leaders and contributing to Democrats retaking the Senate in 1986. Jackson pushed economic populism, criticized corporate abandonment of workers, opposed apartheid, recognized Nelson Mandela as a freedom fighter, called for Palestinian statehood, and broadened political coalitions.

Read at The Nation