ABSTRACT
Barack Obama made history in 2008 when he won the American presidency, becoming the first African American to do so. Yet, he had many precursors who earlier tilled the political garden for him. Prior to his rapid rise politically, a number of blacks had contested for the presidency or vice presidency. Most were candidates of fringe parties (the Socialist Workers Party, for example) and had no realistic chance to win America’s highest political office. But, in 1972 Democratic congresswoman Shirley Chisholm became the first African American female to stand for the presidency as a member of a major political party before her campaign stuttered early in the primary season due to lack of both supporters and funds. Even though hers was a brief campaign, Chisholm in many respects set the stage for Jesse Jackson’s campaigns. However, Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 attempts to win the White House were different. In his efforts, he had a reasonable chance to gain control of the Democratic Party, one of the two national parties that controlled the office since Franklin Pierce’s victory in 1852. After entering the Democratic primaries in 1984, Jackson tried to move his political colleagues to the left, especially on issues vital to the country’s poor in general and to the African American community in particular. When he won the Michigan caucus vote in 1988, Jackson clearly established himself as a force in the Democratic Party. The win announced his arrival.
