Keep Hope Alive! - Poster of the Week
- politicalgraphics
- Feb 20
- 3 min read
Peace Abroad & Justice at Home
Artist Unknown
Offset, circa 1984
United States
38843
Civil rights legend Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. died Tuesday at age 84. Jackson marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the 1960s. From 1967-1971, he was the National Director of SCLC's Operation Breadbasket, organizing massive boycotts against white-owned businesses which did not employ Black people and promoting Black-owned businesses. Jackson eventually left SCLC following increasing tension between his coalition and Dr. King's successor, Ralph Abernathy. Abernathy's coalition felt Jackson was too focused on an untenable goal of racial reconciliation and involvement with middle-class Black business.
Jackson left SCLC in December 1971, and founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save/Serve Humanity) the same year. The organization focused on pressuring politicians to improve economic conditions for both Black people and poor people of all races. Throughout the 1970s, PUSH concentrated on expanding economic and social opportunities and pursuing political power for the Black community. In the 1980s, PUSH staged several successful boycotts of companies that did not invest in the Black community. For example, the 1981 Coca-Cola boycott led to the company donating over $34 million to Black-owned businesses and hiring more Black workers. The 1982 year-long boycott of Anheuser-Busch also led to the company setting up a program to invest in hiring a more diverse workforce. In 1982, PUSH successfully pressured Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to reduce barriers for Black people to own and run a franchise.
Jackson ran for president twice (in 1984 and 1988) to challenge President Reagan's policies that increased unemployment and disproportionately impacted working class minority populations. In 1984, he founded the National Rainbow Coalition, an organization inspired by Fred Hampton's* multi-racial alliance for revolutionary change in the late 1960s. During both his presidential campaigns, he worked to build a broad-based coalition amongst the historically marginalized and disenfranchised, such as racial minorities, the poor, labor unions, lesbians and gays, and disabled veterans. Though he did not secure the Democratic nomination, he won 13 primaries and caucuses in 1988, more than any other Black politician prior to Barack Obama. His campaign slogan was Keep Hope Alive.
Since the 1980s, Jackson worked towards international peace and democracy. He opposed apartheid in South Africa, supported Palestinian self-determination, and promoted democracy in Haiti. Additionally, Jackson negotiated freedom for political prisoners in Syria (1984), Iraq (1991), and Yugoslavia (1999). In 1996, he merged PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition. Since then, the organization has focused on increasing minority leadership and employment opportunities in business, including Wall Street, NASCAR, and Big Tech. Throughout his life, Jackson opposed racism and gun-violence, and supported women’s rights, voting rights, and economic justice.
CSPG's Poster of the Week is from Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign. It reminds us of the values we must always aspire to: peace and justice. It reminds us to Keep Hope Alive.
Rest in Power
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
¡Presente!
*Fred Hampton (1948-1969) was the brilliant and charismatic deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. In December 1969, he was drugged and then assassinated in his bed by the FBI working with the Chicago Police Department and Cook County State’s Attorney General’s office.
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