A DREAM DEFERRED

A sympathetic yet nuanced examination of the civil rights leader's complex legacy.

In this incisive account of the trailblazing and often controversial civil rights leader and presidential candidate, CNN anchor Phillip brings a seasoned reporter’s sharp research and keen insight to the inner workings and significant accomplishments of this complicated but compelling figure. Phillip traces Jackson’s formative years in Greenville, South Carolina—from discovering his birth father was a married neighbor who had impregnated his teenage mother, through his college experiences with segregation that propelled him into civil rights activism and eventually to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under Martin Luther King Jr. Jackson’s presence at King’s assassination and his subsequent news appearances in a bloodied shirt created lasting tensions within the movement’s leadership, as peers suspected opportunism. As Phillip notes, “Those tense days made Jesse Jackson infamous and planted the seeds of suspicion among his peers and the King family that would never really go away.” The core of Phillip’s narrative examines Jackson’s groundbreaking presidential campaigns, particularly his 1988 run, when he secured several primary victories before finishing second to Michael Dukakis. These historic efforts would later pave the way for Barack Obama’s successful campaigns, though Phillip acknowledges that Shirley Chisholm had blazed an even more challenging trail as a Black female candidate. Jackson’s charismatic media presence and faith-infused speeches built an unlikely coalition extending beyond the Black community to marginalized white voters, including struggling Midwest farmers. As Phillip explains, “The coalition he sought was one that intended to unite marginalized groups andwhites to create a powerful majority [and] would tie together aims of racial, gender, and religious justice with commonly held economic demands.” This ambitious vision became Jackson’s signature political strategy. Noting a striking irony, Phillip suggests that Donald Trump’s populist outsider campaign may have done more to validate Jackson’s 1980s blueprint than Obama’s historic victory.

An admiring yet unflinching portrait convincingly weighing Jackson’s contributions against his contradictions.