The Rainbow Coalition's Unfinished Dream: Jesse Jackson's Political Legacy

When Jesse Jackson died Tuesday at 84, many Americans likely remembered his most famous moment: that electrifying speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention where he urged the nation to "Keep hope alive." But Jackson's real legacy wasn't his oratory—it was his audacious belief that America's most marginalized groups could unite around a shared progressive agenda.

That belief, crystallized in his Rainbow Coalition, posed a question that still haunts the Democratic Party today: Can you build a winning coalition that champions both racial justice and economic populism simultaneously?

From Activism to Electoral Ambition

Jackson emerged from the Martin Luther King Jr. era of civil rights activism, but by the 1970s, the movement had splintered into different directions. Some pursued Black capitalism, others continued social justice work, and still others entered electoral politics. Jackson stood at the center of all these streams while remaining a prominent public voice.

His 1984 presidential run generated attention but little traction. The 1988 campaign was different. After a stunning victory in the Michigan primary, Jackson became a serious contender for the Democratic nomination—for several months, it looked entirely plausible that he could win.

Osita Nwanevu, a contributing editor at the New Republic who profiled Jackson, explains what made the second campaign special: "In '88, he really stakes a lot on trying to include and put white working-class voters at the center of that agenda as well. He basically says we're going to do all of these things at once—a forward-looking social agenda and economic agenda that speaks to all the constituencies that are downtrodden and marginalized in America."

The Rainbow Coalition Experiment

Jackson's Rainbow Coalition wasn't just campaign rhetoric—it was a political philosophy. He envisioned bringing together African Americans, Latinos, LGBT people, the poor, the homeless, and eventually white working-class voters under one progressive umbrella. The idea was that these groups shared common interests in policies that would redistribute power and resources.

This vision directly anticipated the debates raging in today's Democratic Party. Should progressives focus on identity-based social justice issues or broader economic populism that might appeal to Donald Trump voters? Jackson's answer, 40 years ago, was essentially: "Why not both?"

The coalition showed promise. Jackson's 1988 campaign demonstrated that a candidate could win primaries by combining racial justice messaging with economic populism. But ultimately, the experiment failed. Jackson lost the nomination, stepped back from electoral politics, and watched as centrist Democrats like Bill Clinton took control of the party in the 1990s.

The Obama Years and Generational Tensions

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, many saw it as the fulfillment of Jackson's dream—a Black man in the White House. But the relationship between the two men was complicated. Jackson often criticized Obama from the left, most memorably in an off-mic moment during the 2008 primary when he made disparaging remarks about the candidate.

This tension reflected broader generational differences within Black political leadership. While Jackson represented the confrontational style of the civil rights era, Obama embodied a more conciliatory approach designed to appeal to white moderate voters. The trade-off was that Obama's presidency, despite its historic significance, delivered less of the structural change Jackson had envisioned.

A Fading Giant's Enduring Questions

Nwanevu notes that Jackson "receded from public memory a lot in these last four decades"—remarkable for someone who was once "one of the most famous people in the world." Younger Americans might know him primarily as a historical figure, if at all.

Yet his political model may be more relevant than ever. Politicians like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani are cited as potential heirs to Jackson's coalition-building approach—not just in terms of policy substance, but in political style. Jackson had an unusual ability to make people feel personally connected to him, a quality that might be essential for building the kind of broad-based movement he envisioned.

The Unfinished Project

Jackson's career illuminates why progressive coalition-building remains so challenging. Despite decades of demographic change that should favor the Rainbow Coalition, it has never become the majority coalition Jackson imagined. The fault lines that divided his campaigns—between different minority groups, between identity politics and class politics, between ideological purity and electoral pragmatism—still fracture progressive movements today.

As Nwanevu reflects, Jackson was "one of the first people on the front lines of this battle that we are fighting now, that we take for granted now"—the battle between progressive and centrist visions of the Democratic Party.