Baptist minister and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was the leading advocate for racial equality in the United States by the 1980s, and his initial bid for the presidency marked the first serious attempt by an African American for a nationwide office in United States history and provided a great stimulus to black registration and voting.

Jackson was born to a single mother in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941. Raised by his mother and stepfather in modest surroundings, Jackson also lived near his affluent father, witnessing and resenting the material well-being of his half-brother. These tensions fueled a lifelong determination in him to transcend his initial surroundings. Ambitious, charismatic, and intelligent, Jackson achieved success as a student and as an athlete in segregated Greensboro, earning a scholarship to the University of Illinois in 1959. When his dream of playing quarterback failed to materialize, Jackson left Illinois...