Jesse Jackson for President 1984 Campaign Brochure

‘He’s spent his life fighting America’s wrongs...

He knows how to make America right.’

JESSE JACKSON The Man

At critical crossroads in our nation's history, leaders of bold strength and compassion have arisen to lead us all to a higher destiny. 1984 is that crossroads and Jesse Jackson is that leader Not since Abraham Lincoln has a candidate for President of the most powerful nation on earth felt more deeply and acted more decisively to meet the cry of the American people for social justice worldwide.

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Jesse Jackson experienced the daily humiliation of segregation in the Deep South. From this he developed a strong sense of justice and a fierce drive for personal achievement within the vision of a redeemed America.

By 1963, as a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he was involved in civil rights protests throughout the South. After Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, he left the SCLC to found "Operation PUSH" -- People United to Save Humanity. Through PUSH, Jackson attacked the afflictions of the poor and powerless in America. He pioneered nationwide programs to improve minority education, economic development, employment, criminal justice and voter registration.

Since then Jesse Jackson has become the most outspoken advocate for the "locked out and forgotten." He has also ceaselessly championed the needs of all people -- white, black, Hispanic, men and women, senior citizens and youth -- elevating their concerns to the mainstream of American politics.

Jesse Jackson brings the same courage and commitment to the struggle for world peace, civil and human rights, foreign policy, nuclear disarmament, energy and the environment. His recent Syrian peace mission demonstrates that honest negotiation from a positive, humanistic view of world problems succeeds where armed confrontation fails.

Jesse Jackson is young, imaginative, honest and courageous. He is closer in sensitivity, spirit and experience to the people and issues that will shape America's future destiny than any other candidate for President.

Jesse Jackson has spent his life fighting America's wrongs. He knows how to begin the tide that will raise all of America's boats -- those especially "stuck on the bottom" of life. Jesse Jackson is a leader.

JACKSON ON PEACE

"The world's leaders must meet, negotiate and meet matters head on...World affairs cannot be run by remote control from an ivory tower in Washington!"

"Our strongest defense as a nation is to regain our moral authority in the world so that we can again be respected and not just feared."

Jesse Jackson proposes a policy of Strength Through Peace. His dramatic success in Damascus in securing the release of Lieutenant Robert Goodman demonstrated the importance of personal leadership in achieving world peace.

Jackson proposes an aggressive campaign to halt the nuclear arms race and a reasonable process for arms reduction.

He believes that peace is achieved not through the barrel of a gun, but by attention to the pressing problems of human misery and need. He would adopt a foreign policy based on negotiation to reduce world tensions and use the offensive weapons of trade, aid, cultural exchange, international communication and understanding.

JACKSON ON WOMENS RIGHTS

As President, Jesse Jackson will continue the fight for immediate ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; for equal pay for comparable jobs; for the elimination of all inequities in both law and in the application of Social Security and insurance based on gender, reproductive choice and for progressive child and day care.

Jesse Jackson believes that equal rights for women is critical since today many women are sole heads of households and over 70% of all poor children live in female-headed households and need society's protection.

JACKSON ON EMPLOYMENT

"There is no more pressing need than to put America back to work."

Jesse Jackson believes that every American who wants to work should have the opportunity to work.

He believes that we can create jobs through building where we live, and that the new frontier is not in space but in rebuilding American communities.

In this task, corporations can play a creative role by reinvesting profits in America rather than abroad.

The American worker can compete with any workers in the world; foreign labor is not better, just cheaper. America needs a full employment economy.

JACKSON ON JUSTICE

"The basis of any just society is equal protection under the law." Jesse Jackson has been the foremost candidate on the critical issues of voters rights, social justice, human rights and immigration reform.

Voting Rights Act: "I am fighting for the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. It is the key to empowering the disenfranchised and is vital to progressive politics in America.

"The unfinished agenda of social justice in America encompasses civil rights, but relates it to a new definition of human rights without which civil rights is a hollow prize. Thus, the struggle ahead is for the achievement of these twin concepts of justice for all people in America."

Immigration: "We must have equal standards for admitting people to this country. We cannot have one policy for non-white people from the Caribbean and Latin America...and another for Canada and Europe."

JACKSON ON EDUCATION

"Our educational system is the backbone of American society. All of our children must learn and progress within the system...if our nation is to survive."

"If our children can conceive it, and believe it, they can achieve it."

Jesse Jackson understands firsthand the impact of education on the development of the skills of youth for access to employment, deterrent against crime and a positive self-image. He has listened carefully to the concerns of countless parents, students and educators, feeling the need for national leadership to restore financial resources to education and the need for discipline and concern on the part of students and parents in the commitment to learn.

Jesse Jackson is the only candidate with a proven record of success in proposing innovative, quality solutions to education which foster academic excellence.

JACKSON ON CRIME

"Neither a permissive liberalism nor a static conservatism is the answer to reducing crime."

Jesse Jackson believes that crime costs the nation a terrible toll in wasted human and financial resources.

"We cannot tolerate crime and must reduce it in our communities. We must also eliminate those elements -- like unemployment and poverty -- that foster the criminal atmosphere...but never let them be used as an excuse. We must try new approaches which are neither weak nor vindictive, but based on justice and fairness for all."

JACKSON ON THE BUDGET

"In 1980, President Reagan promised a balanced budget by 1984. Under four years of President Reagan his administration will have accumulated more budget deficits than all past Presidents combined."

Jesse Jackson will correct the massive and inhuman shifts of federal dollars from the human needs budget to the military. He will restore the "safety net" lost by millions of Americans to Reagonomics.

Jesse Jackson believes that within a balanced budget, without deficits, and without inflation, we can finance the expenditure of a human needs budget and pay for a superior defense.

JACKSON ON ENVIRONMENT

"I believe our government has not only a moral, but a constitutional duty to dean up the environment now -- before it's too late!"

"Imagine if you couldn't go outside without wearing a gas mask? Or if you couldn't drink water without boiling it? Well, the reality is these kinds of things are already starting to happen. Smog alerts. Health alerts. Thermal inversions. Acid rain. Chemical dumping. Toxins. Our environment -- the air we need to breathe, the water we need to live -- is being destroyed. And the only way we can do something about it is to do something about it. Now. The plain truth is what politicians like to call environmental issues are a matter of life and death. Not a matter of priorities. Not a matter of budgets. Not a matter of bureaucracy. But a matter of life as in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It can be done. It must be done. And if I am your President, it will be done."

Join us for “A just society and a peaceful world.” -Jesse Jackson 1984