Bernie Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, greets Jesse Jackson backstage at a 1988 Vermont rally where he endorsed Jackson's presidential bid.

(MIDDLEBURY, VT) Jesse Jackson’s two campaigns for president, in 1984 and 1988, were unsuccessful but historic. The civil rights activist and organizer, who died on Feb. 17, 2026, helped pave the way for Barack Obama’s election a generation later as the nation’s first – and so far only – African American president.

Jackson’s campaigns energized a multiracial coalition that not only provided support for other late-20th-century Democratic politicians, including President Bill Clinton, but helped create an organizing template – a so-called Rainbow Coalition combining Black, Latino, working-class white and young voters – that continues to resonate in progressive politics today.

Originally published on theconversation.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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