A Dream Deferred
Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From CNN’s Abby Phillip comes a fresh, nuanced portrait of legendary civil rights activist, Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“A joyful, rich, must-read biography of a politician whose flaws and gifts were in constant, intense competition.” —Jake Tapper
Jesse Jackson was one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. He was a civil rights leader, activist, and an adept politician whose presidential runs shaped the course of Democrat politics to this day. In A Dream Deferred, Abby Phillip charts the course of his life through conversations with Jackson himself, as well as interviews with his inner circle, political peers, critics, and historians.
Focusing on his presidential runs in 1984 and, especially, 1988, Phillip highlights how Jackson built an unlikely coalition that showed the power of the Black vote and the resonance of an inclusive message of economic populism. His experience working under Martin Luther King; his organizing the SLCC’s Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and beyond; and his roots in the deep South combined into two astonishingly impactful presidential campaigns. Appealing to the working people of urban enclaves like Chicago, young people on college campuses, and Black people across the South, white farmers in rural areas and many others, he created the modern Democratic coalition—one that has been used by all major Democrats seeking national success from Obama to Biden to Harris.
Drawing on her expert reporting and natural storytelling skills, Abby Phillip has written a rousing popular history brimming with humanity, politics, and hope that sheds new light on an American icon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
CNN anchor Phillip debuts with a fresh and illuminating account of Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. Starting from Jackson's childhood in segregated Greenville, S.C., Phillip traces his development into a prominent civil rights leader. Jackson became Martin Luther King Jr.'s "man in the North," helming boycott campaigns that pressured companies into hiring more Black workers. He also took a growing interest in harnessing Black electoral power, spearheading efforts to register Black voters and aiding in the 1983 election of Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington, a victory that inspired Jackson to pursue his own presidential run. Phillip surveys the two Jackson campaigns' notable achievements, including embarrassing President Reagan by negotiating directly with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad for the return of an imprisoned Black Navy lieutenant, and building his multiethnic "rainbow coalition" in part by advocating for white farmers. Phillip also delves into the campaigns' catastrophic missteps, most destructively Jackson's antisemitic reference to New York City as "Hymietown," which derailed his 1984 bid. She also offers a striking analysis of Jackson's continued influence, showing how his campaign prefigured the contemporary progressive platform and to some extent foreshadowed the populist agendas of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The result is a paradigm-shifting reassessment of a progressive firebrand's legacy.
