His decision caused heartache for some of his natural supporters, including King’s widow, Coretta, who feared he would fail to win the Democratic Party’s nomination and damage the chances of other progressive candidates.
During the campaign, Jackson spoke about the “rainbow coalition”, a broad group of voters from a variety of races and beliefs who were traditionally disadvantaged and who, Jackson said, had been hurt by the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
“Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbow – red, yellow, brown, black, and white – and we’re all precious in God’s sight,” he said in a speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, where he called for the party to unify.
Jackson copyrighted the term and later founded a political group with the same name. The move irritated some members of the Black Panther organisation, who in the 1960s had used the term to describe an alliance between activists groups in Chicago.
While Jackson ultimately lost the Democratic nomination, his campaign had become a political and cultural phenomenon. In October 1984, he hosted Saturday Night Live – a popular weekly network television comedy programme.
His presidential bid also had a profound effect on Democrats. By winning more than 3 million votes and coming third during the primaries, he showed that a black candidate could rally nationwide support and possibly take the White House.
At the same time, by running on a liberal platform, he brought many of the issues important to the party’s left wing to the fore and gave them traction, such as universal healthcare and paying reparations to the descendants of slaves.
Jackson was on record as a supporter of a Palestinian state, and had called Israel’s prime minister “a terrorist”.
He had also pledged never to use nuclear weapons first and to slash defence spending if he became president – positions that seemed impossible at the height of the Cold War.
