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In ‘A Dream Deferred,’ the CNN anchor argues that Jackson’s presidential runs in the 1980s reshaped the Democratic Party and changed who could aspire to the presidency.
Abby Phillip (seen here at the 2024 Republican National Convention) has written a new book about Jesse Jackson’s two presidential political campaigns in the 1980s, and their lasting impact on the Democratic Party. (Courtesy of CNN)
For decades, Jesse Jackson has embodied the power of protest — a steadfast presence in America’s long fight for civil rights, marching alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Andrew Young, Hosea Williams and John Lewis.
What history often forgets is the other stage where he made history: the presidential campaigns of the 1980s that redrew the map of Democratic politics.
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“A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power,” is Abby Phillip’s new book about the political rise of Jesse Jackson. (Courtesy of Flatiron Books)
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Rev. Jesse Jackson sits in the audience before the presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. (Julio Cortez/AP)
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(From left) U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, and Ambassador Andrew Young, take the stage together at the Trumpet Awards. (Jenni Girtman for the AJC)
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Jackson “literally changed the rules of the Democratic Party, making it possible for an outsider, nonestablishment candidate to win a primary — even after losing the big states,” says Abby Phillip, host of “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on CNN. (Courtesy of Iris Mannings)
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Jesse Jackson gives a thumbs-up, while former President Jimmy Carter applauds during Michael Dukakis’ acceptance speech on July 20, 1988. (AJC FILE)
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Jackson speaks to reporters at the Operation PUSH Soul Picnic at the 142nd Street Armory in New York, March 26, 1972. Also present were (left to right): Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X; Tom Todd, vice president of PUSH; Aretha Franklin; singer Miriam Makeba and Rep. Louis Stokes, rear right. (Jim Wells/AP)
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Jackson gets emotional as the presidential election results are announced in favor of Democratic candidate Barack Obama in Chicago’s Grant Park, where Obama held election night festivities. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT)
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is seen here with Rev. Jesse Jackson (left) just before King’s final public appearance to address striking Memphis sanitation workers on April 4, 1968. (Charles Kelly/AP).
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Jackson attends the wake for Atlanta builder and civil rights leader Herman J. Russell at Ebenezer Baptist Church Friday, Nov. 21, 2014. (Kent D. Johnson/AJC)
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Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
