Jesse Jackson for President Campaign

Jesse Louis Jackson is an American politician, civil rights activist, and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

Jackson was the second African-American to mount a nationwide campaign for the Presidency. He garnered 3.5 million votes during the primaries, third behind candidates Hart and Mondale. He won in Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana, and split Mississippi, where there were two separate contests for Democratic delegates. Through the process, Jackson helped confirm the black electorate's importance to the Democratic Party in the South at the time.