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His face, with its wide-set eyes and trimmed mustache, and his voice, with its rhythmic cadences learned in the black churches of the Deep South, were among the best known in America. For two decades, Jackson had been a presence on the national scene, first as a lieutenant of Martin Luther King, Jr., during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, then as the founder of a social reform organization called People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH). Always, and seemingly everywhere, Jackson appeared as the outspoken foe of what he perceived to be racism, imperialism, and economic inequality . In 1984, responding to the plea, “Run, Jesse, Run,” Jackson had sought the Democratic presidential nomination, representing what he called a Rainbow Coalition of blacks, of the poor, of women, of homosexuals, of the unemployed. His campaign captured the fevered attention of the media and whipped up powerful storms of controversy; still, he had finished far behind Walter Mondale in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes.

To see a Jesse Jackson campaign ad

from 1988, scan here.

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C I V I L R I G H T S L E A D E R S : J E S S E J AC K S O N