Intersectionality Matters! 75. Unfinished Business: Racial Justice After Jesse Jackson
Feb 21, 2026
Joseph Lowndes, political science professor studying race and populism. Barbara Arnwine, civil rights lawyer focused on voting and transformative justice. Donna Brazile, political strategist and former DNC chair. They revisit Jesse Jackson’s organizing and populist vision. They trace his party reforms, cross-racial coalition-building, grassroots campaigning, and behind-the-scenes diplomacy in short, lively conversations.
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Donna Brazile's First Meeting With Jesse Jackson
- Donna Brazile met Jesse Jackson in 1981 while organizing Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday events and was struck by his electrifying charisma.
- Two years later she joined his 1984 campaign as National Mobilization Director, learned grassroots organizing, and sold buttons to fund fieldwork.
Jackson As Multiracial Democratic Populist
- Joseph Lowndes frames Jackson as a democratic populist who stitched diverse constituencies into a shared political identity via the Rainbow Coalition metaphor.
- Jackson used vivid metaphors (the patchwork blanket) to connect workers, farmers, LGBTQ people, and women into one political we.
Barbara Arnwine On Jackson's Mentorship Of Women
- Barbara Arnwine first saw Jackson at the 1972 Gary Black Political Convention and later was personally invited to his Saturday broadcast in the 1990s.
- She emphasizes his mentorship of women and how he elevated female leaders like Addie Wyatt and Winnie Barrows.