The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. acquired a standing ovation when he arrived on the primary evening of the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago.
Jackson, 82, waved and gave a thumbs-up from his wheelchair on stage however didn’t make a speech on Monday night. In 2017, the long-lasting civil rights chief was identified with Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative illness. Final 12 months, Jackson stepped down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Chicago-based group combating for progressive social change he based in 1996.
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An ordained minister, he labored alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. within the Southern Christian Management Convention. Throughout his time in politics, Jackson sought to broaden the umbrella of the Democratic celebration as an activist and presidential candidate.
Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984
A bit of over a decade after Rep. Shirley Chisholm ran for the White Home in 1972, the primary Black lady to run a nationwide marketing campaign for the Democratic Occasion’s nomination, Jackson turned the second Black American to hunt a major-party nomination for president, working as a Democrat.
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Regardless of some instantly dismissing Jackson as a nonviable candidate, he gained 5 primaries and caucuses in 1984, turning into the primary Black politician to win any major-party state main contest. Jackson secured a majority of the Black vote and 18.2 p.c of the overall main vote that 12 months, however former Vice President Walter Mondale gained the Democratic celebration’s presidential nomination.
Former President Ronald Reagan defeated Mondale within the 1984 common election.
Jackson did even higher in 1988
4 years later, Jackson was seen as much less of a political outsider when he ran his second presidential marketing campaign.
On the time, Jackson acquired an endorsement from then-Mayor Bernie Sanders of Burlington, Vermont who later turned the state’s impartial U.S. senator and one other progressive Democratic presidential candidate. Jackson’s 1988 marketing campaign is credited with pushing Democrats left on points nonetheless debated inside the celebration immediately, together with well being care, social welfare spending, and U.S. relations with Israel.
Within the 1988 Democratic presidential main, he gained 13 state contests however got here in second to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who clinched the celebration’s nomination.
Former President George H. W. Bush beat Dukakis in a landslide later that 12 months.
Rachel Barber is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY, specializing in politics and schooling. Comply with her on X, previously Twitter, at @rachelbarber_