cluding those in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi, and Virginia. He gained an increasingly
multiracial following, winning the Michigan primary
and finishing second in Illinois and Wisconsin. Over
one-fourth of Democrats voting nationwide sup-
ported him. However, any chance he had of winning
the nomination was killed in New York. His earlier
indiscrete remarks about Jews and concerns that an
African American candidate could not be elected
president resulted in his defeat by Governor Mi-
chael Dukakis of Massachusetts. Dukakis won the
Democratic nomination but lost the general elec-
tion to Republican George H. W. Bush.
Impact Jackson’s campaigns raised the possibility
that an African American could one day become
president of the United States and schooled many
young African American activists to assume leader-
ship roles in politics. His strong showing in the pri-
maries and active involvement in the convention
of the Democratic Party moved African Americans
nearer to the center of American political life and
changed the participation of minorities in the politi-
cal process.
Further Reading
Barker, Lucius J.Our Time Has Come: A Delegate’s Diar y
of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential Campaign.Ur-
bana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. Close look
at the day-to-day events of the 1984 campaign by
a Jackson delegate to the Democratic National
Convention.
Bruns, Roger.Jesse Jackson: A Biography. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Balanced biogra-
phy that details Jackson’s early life and includes a
timeline of events and photographs; includes in-
sightful discussion of the impact of Jackson’s ca-
reer.
Jakoubek, Robert.Jesse Jackson: Civil Rights Leader and
Politician. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2005. En-
joyable volume in the series Black Americans of
Achievement that focuses on Jackson’s political
life and includes color photographs.
Edna B. Quinn
See also African Americans; Bush, George H. W.;
Conservatism in U.S. politics; Dukakis, Michael;
Elections in the United States, 1984; Elections in the
United States, 1988; Hart, Gary; Mondale, Walter;
Reagan, Ronald; Reagan Revolution.
Jackson, Michael
Identification Pop music superstar
Born August 29, 1958; Gary, IndianaThe innovation and charisma Michael Jackson brought to
popular music and its presentation, particularly in pio-
neering large-scale dance productions in the new medium of
music videos, made him the most successful and popular
musical act of the 1980’s.Michael Jackson entered the 1980’s as a rising star.
He had begun his career in childhood as lead singer
of the family group, the Jackson Five, and, after a
four-year hiatus, had reemerged with the enormously
successful 1979 solo albumOff the Wall. In 1982, his
career soared to a dramatic new level with the re-
lease ofThriller. The album included seven hit sin-
gles and became the best-selling album in pop music
history.Jackson and Music Videos In promoting the al-
bum and its hit songs, Jackson took advantage of the
music video, a recent innovation that was driving the
cable television channel MTV. At the time, videos
most often depicted bands performing their songs
in unusual settings or accompanied those songs with
abstract or suggestive visuals. It was relatively rare for
them to tell stories. Jackson, however, developed vid-
eos with narrative structures that both illustrated
and existed in counterpoint to his music. These vid-
eos often included spectacular dance productions
and special effects. One of them, “Beat It,” the story
of a loner’s attempt to stop a gang fight, became the
first video by an African American performer to re-
ceive regular airplay on MTV. “Thriller,” a fourteen-
minute horror musical evocative ofNight of the Living
Dead, was packaged with a documentary on the mak-
ing of the video to become the best-selling home mu-
sic video in history. The album spent thirty-seven
weeks at number one, won eight 1984 American Music
Awards, and, along with his narrative for the story-
book albumE.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, won for Jack-
son a record-setting eight Grammy Awards in 1984.
In May, 1983, Jackson appeared on a television
special celebrating Motown’s twenty-fifth anniver-
sary wearing what would become his trademark—a
single white sequined glove. He performed “Billie
Jean,” during which he created a sensation when he
introduced the “moonwalk,” a dance step in which
he slid backwards while appearing to walk forward.The Eighties in America Jackson, Michael 541