Many black leaders, including some icons of the civil rights movement, plead with Jesse Jackson not to run for president, convinced his campaign will harm their cause. But he defies them and then defies all expectations in a campaign that radically expands the role of black voters in national Democratic politics.

The frustration of 1980 created urgency among black leaders not to be marginalized again.

Among some, an idea took shape: recruit a black presidential candidate. It picked up momentum early in 1983, when Rep. Harold Washington of Illinois triumphed in Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary, an upset that positioned him to become the first black mayor of America's second-largest city.

Proponents envisioned a black presidential candidacy accelerating the registration of new black voters, forcing the political and media establishments to address issues they might otherwise ignore, and possibly even leveraging a strong showing into the vice presidential slot. Meetings were held, studies commissioned and names bandied about as possible candidates, including Walter Fauntroy, who had organized a slate in D.C.'s 1976 primary and still represented the district in Congress, and Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles, among others.

With black leaders, however, support for a black candidacy was far from universal.

Andrew Young, who’d become mayor of Atlanta after his Carter administration tenure, argued that it would be wiser for the black establishment to spread out its support so that it would be represented in every major presidential campaign and be guaranteed some leverage with the ultimate winner — an approach that the Rev. Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference argued against. "Andy was on the inside with Carter, but what did that get? All it got him was to the U.N., and it got him fired," Lowery said. (“Black Leaders Hear Plan for Key Role in Democratic Convention,” Milton Coleman, The Washington Post, March 13, 1983.)

While the debate continued, a candidate volunteered: the Rev. Jesse Jackson, still the Chicago-based leader of Operation PUSH. Aggressive in his pursuit of media coverage, Jackson was by now well known nationally, and a poll showed him running at 9 percent in the Democratic race — far behind the front-runners Walter Mondale and John Glenn, but better than any other aspirant.

In early November, Jackson announced his candidacy. "We are members of the party and we don't want to leave,” he said, "but our self-respect is nonnegotiable." ("Jackson Declares Formal Candidacy," Ronald Smothers, The New York Times, Nov. 4, 1983.)