Although not the first black American to seek the Democratic Party nomination for president, the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s campaign in 1984 made the first significant impact and laid the foundations for a further bid in 1988. The badge prompts enquiry into the history of the black American struggle for political representation, and in particular into the achievements of the civil rights campaigns in the AD 1950s – 1970s and the challenges that continued to the end of the century.