17377: Another DEIBA+ Scoreboard For Super Bowl LX Advertising.

 

Adweek reported on DEIBA+ representation in Super Bowl LX advertising, presenting questionable data with obscure criteria from a market research firm.

 

For example, campaign diversity was measured as follows:

 

“The firm tallied ads that showed two or more clearly distinct racial or ethnic groups onscreen—not in the background—for a total of at least three seconds.”

 

Additionally, “multicultural narratives” were measured as follows:

 

“The firm measured how many of the ads depicted a character from a historically underrepresented group who was speaking, driving the story action, or visually centered for at least a quarter of the ad.”

 

BTW, the market research firm’s leadership team is not very diverse.

 

2026’s Super Bowl Ads Are More Diverse, but Celebs Still Skew White 

 

LGBTQ+ representation dropped for the second year in a row

 

By Kathryn Lundstrom

 

2026 Super Bowl ads reflected more racial diversity than last year, but celebrity talent in the ads was still primarily white. LGBTQ representation also dropped in this year’s crop of Big Game ads.

 

A majority of national Super Bowl spots (68%) visibly represented multiple racial or ethnic groups, according to an analysis from market research firm Zappi. The firm tallied ads that showed two or more clearly distinct racial or ethnic groups onscreen—not in the background—for a total of at least three seconds.

 

That percentage was up from last year, when just 57% of the ads represented multiple racial or ethnic groups. In 2024, 70% of ads represented multiple racial or ethnic groups.

 

More ads built multicultural representation into the story

 

Multicultural narratives were also better represented in Super Bowl 60 ads compared to the last two years, according to Zappi. The firm measured how many of the ads depicted a character from a historically underrepresented group who was speaking, driving the story action, or visually centered for at least a quarter of the ad.

 

Twenty-six percent of Super Bowl spots depicted multicultural representation as central to the narrative this year, up from 6% in 2025.

 

Zappi’s analysis found better diversity boosts ad effectiveness. Ads that focused on representation—like Dove, Rocket, NFL, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Novo Nordisk—scored 8% above average in terms of sales impact, the firm said.

 

But when it comes to celebrity talent, most brands are still casting white celebrities. Of the 103 celebrities who appeared in Super Bowl ads this year, at least 60 of them were white, according to ADWEEK’s count.

 

LGBTQ+ representation falls, again

 

On a separate diversity metric, GLAAD published a list of ads starring LGBTQ talent, which dropped for the second year in a row. Just five spots in the Big Game explicitly featured LGBTQ people, the advocacy group reported, all of whom are out celebrities.

 

Those ads were Levi’s, Nerds, Pokémon, Ritz, and State Farm. GLAAD noted 2026 was the third straight year without transgender representation in a national Super Bowl ad.

17376: Does DEIBA+ Click With Brand Social Media?

For Black History Month, Advertising Age is publishing content from Blacks in Adland, covering a variety of topics.

 

The content below is titled, “Why instinct and diversity are essential in brand social media success.”

 

Okay, except White advertising agencies don’t view diversity as essential. Need proof? Look for BHM social media posts presented by any White advertising agency in February.

 

In Adland, systemic racism is instinctive—and it’s gone viral for decades.

 

Why instinct and diversity are essential in brand social media success

 

By Ryan Bauman

 

I have and will always be a little obsessed with pop culture and social media. It started from a young age. When I got my first iPod Touch, it felt like a whole new world was here just for me. Being able to see what was happening in real life, in the palm of my hand, could never be something I’d forget. Honestly, I still can’t. Growing up, culture always had an impact on how I see the world, especially within social media.

 

I never knew that social media could be something that I could have a career in. Everything, by the grace of God, flowed so easily within the world of social media for me. Seeing what trends were popular and how they made a change in culture, especially Black culture, was something that just clicked. I knew that I wanted to be able to be a representative of my culture, yet also be able to tie to the very captivating world of social media.

 

So, I took a leap of faith. Applying to the BLAC advertising internship program was something I instinctively knew I needed to do at the time. It opened the world of advertising for me, and I didn’t even know it. You can learn so much when taking a look back and seeing how things just work out.

 

I never would have thought that BLAC would have led me to work on one of the most beloved brands in social, Wendy’s. Joining a powerhouse in social media felt daunting at first, but overall exciting. Taking one trend, one post at a time, was my way of seeing a new opportunity with and for the team, every day. Then, it happened.

 

An immense instinct came when the quarter zips trend was just starting to get traction on social media. My art direction partner, Nyah Evans, and I acted fast by putting Wendy’s in a quarter zip. It went viral. From coverage on Complex to even getting a deal made with the creator of the trend, Jason Gyamfi, it blossomed into something more than just a social post.

 

Virality is so important, especially since social media is so saturated with content. It’s even harder now to stand out. We were able to act fast and cater a message to our culture, and let the world take notice. This idea worked because of the natural connection we made to the trend with our authentic representation of what’s trending in Black culture. The fact that it came from a major brand such as Wendy’s speaks volumes to the caliber of diverse voices on the team.

 

Hiring talent that may look, think, or have different upbringings from you leads to diverse, effective, and collaborative work. It stems from that gut feeling, that instinct that will keep informing you one trend, one post, one hire at a time. It leads to creating work that reflects my culture and resonates with many.

 

And that’s the funny thing about instinct. Without it, I wouldn’t have taken a leap of faith. Instinct is not only what makes culture and social media thrive, but it sometimes leads us to places, jobs, and opportunities that we could have never dreamed of, but undoubtedly deserve.

 

Oh, if little Ryan could only see how far she’s come now.

17375: WPP Media Whistleblower Lawsuit Blowing Up…?

 

Digiday reported the latest news involving a $100 million whistleblower lawsuit filed against WPP last year.

 

The accusations target WPP and GroupM, the latter which was rebranded under the WPP Media banner in 2025.

 

If the lawsuit ultimately impacts WPP Media, will the former GroupM shoulder the bulk of financial burdens or will all media firms in the network equally share the troubles?

 

Expect a crumby reduction of performative promises made to Black-owned media too.

 

In fighting a whistleblower suit, WPP put its own account of media agency trading on the public record

 

By Seb Joseph

 

The $100 million whistleblower lawsuit Richard Foster filed against WPP last November is back in focus. New court filings — including WPP’s motion to dismiss and exhibits that place Foster’s own internal documents into the public record for the first time — have added significant texture to both sides of a case that initial headlines only scratched the surface of.

 

Most notably among the exhibits is Foster’s own internal report to GroupM CEO Brian Lesser, which contains internal data on client opt-in rates, platform spend, and income targets that haven’t been public until now. The materials were first reported by The Times.

 

Before unpacking those materials, here’s a recap of how the case reached this point. 

 

Who’s suing whom

 

Foster spent 17 years at GroupM, ending as global CEO of Motion Content Group — the division that co-produced Love Island, managed roughly $500 million in annual entertainment investment, and by his own filed data was posting 140% US revenue growth in his final year. He was fired on July 10, 2025, the day after WPP’s stock dropped 18% on a trading update disclosing serious deterioration at WPP Media. He filed suit in November 2025 against WPP and GroupM (since rebranded WPP Media), seeking at least $100 million, Business Insider reported. 

 

What Foster alleges

 

Foster claims GroupM, which according to the complaint controlled roughly $60 billion in annual client ad spend at its peak, ran a hidden profit center by systematically retaining rebates that should have gone back to advertisers. Allegedly, GroupM’s media trading arm would aggregate client budgets to hit volume thresholds with vendors, triggering rebates in the form of free or discounted inventory. Rather than returning those benefits to clients, GroupM allegedly reclassified the inventory as “proprietary media,” sold it back through opt-in agreements, and booked the spread as “non-product related income.” Foster estimates GroupM generated $3 to $4 billion in rebate-driven deals over five years and improperly retained $1.5 to $2 billion of it.

 

The executives Foster implicates include Mark Patterson, now global president of WPP Media, whom he identifies as the primary architect of the rebate strategy and who publicly called rebates “not a dirty word” in 2016; Andrew Meaden, global chief investment officer, who allegedly institutionalized the practice and in one meeting proposed diverting client spend away from Meta because Meta refused a proprietary deal; and WPP general counsel Nicola McCormick, who Foster alleges privately described the rebate situation as “existential” while declining to formally investigate.

 

The document at the center of everything

 

In December 2024, at incoming GroupM CEO Brian Lesser’s request, Foster submitted a 36-page internal report, dubbed “Project Claridges”, laying out both a critique of GroupM’s trading’s practices and a proposal for a new consolidated entertainment division with projected net sales of over $2 billion by 2029. The report contains internal data that is now in the public court record, including a breakdown showing that among GroupM’s top 30 U.S. billing clients, representing $13.5 billion in total billings, only 5% of eligible spend was actually used through the proprietary inventory deals. 

 

Breaking it down further: among the top 10 clients alone, representing $8.5 billion in billings, 62% of their spend went through non-proprietary channels entirely, and 91.9% of the proprietary inventory generated went unused. Google, GroupM’s single largest US client at $2.3 billion in annual billings, utilized just 0.51% of the proprietary inventory its budget was helping to generate, meaning 99.5% went unused. These were the clients whose collective spending was being used to hit the volume thresholds that triggered the rebates in the first place.

 

Lesser acknowledged the report’s concerns and said he’d investigate further. He then asked Foster to send Patterson a “sanitized” version excluding criticism of GroupM’s trading arm. Before Foster could do so, Lesser forwarded the unedited original to Patterson. Patterson, having read a detailed critique of his own practices, told Foster he had “all he needed.” Within hours, Foster’s division was placed under Patterson’s oversight. Six months later he was fired.

 

Where the money was being spent

 

The internal documents also show the scale of GroupM’s platform relationships in 2023, establishing the leverage at the center of the alleged scheme. Globally: Google accounted for $9.4 billion in spend, Meta $3.7 billion, TikTok $1.1 billion, Amazon $1.1 billion, and The Trade Desk $1.1 billion. In the US: Google represented $4.9 billion, Meta $1.4 billion, Disney $835 million, NBCU $700 million, Paramount $540 million, and Warner Bros. Discovery $417 million. Total tracked global platform spend: $18.5 billion. U.S. network and platform spend: $9.8 billion.

 

With that volume to direct, GroupM had considerable power to pressure vendors into proprietary arrangements — and, the complaint alleges, to penalize those who refused.

 

WPP’s defense

 

WPP’s motion to dismiss makes three arguments worth taking seriously. 

 

First and most damaging to Foster: according to a sworn affirmation from Lesser, Foster’s counsel sent WPP a draft complaint on October 10, 2025 — more than two months before filing — and threatened to go public unless GroupM agreed to a large severance payment within 30 days. WPP refused, and the lawsuit followed. WPP argues that offering to stay silent for a payout is fundamentally incompatible with being a whistleblower.

 

Second, WPP contends that the Project Claridges report — Foster’s supposed evidence of protected disclosure — contains no mention of illegal activity. Its position is that it’s a business proposal for Foster’s own promotion, not a whistleblower document, and that Foster is retroactively reframing an ambitious pitch.

 

Third, Foster was among hundreds of U.S. GroupM employees and thousands globally let go in a documented restructuring. His entire division was eliminated. Six months elapsed between his last alleged report and his termination.

 

Why it matters beyond the lawsuit

 

The China backdrop lends the allegations weight. In October 2023, Chinese authorities raided GroupM’s offices and detained more than 30 employees for systematically retaining client rebates — precisely what Foster claims was happening globally. WPP hit a 27-year stock low in October 2025 when new CEO Cindy Rose publicly conceded WPP Media had “lost its way”. 

 

Where it likely ends up

 

A settlement would not be surprising. WPP cannot afford the discovery process, with internal communications about rebate practices potentially feeding both the shareholder litigation and client contract reviews. But the extortion allegation gives WPP real leverage to limit the payout.

 

The bigger question the case raises has nothing to do with Foster specifically: if GroupM’s own internal data shows its largest clients were almost entirely not benefiting from the proprietary inventory deals that generated nearly $1 billion in annual agency income, what exactly was the business model? That’s a question advertisers, regulators, and shareholders are now all asking — with or without this lawsuit.

 

WPP declined to comment.

17374: BHM 2026—Advertising Age On DEIBA+ Hiring.

For Black History Month, Advertising Age is publishing content from Blacks in Adland, covering a variety of topics.

 

The content below is titled, “Why agencies need to recommit to diversity hiring.”

 

Okay, but is it technically a recommitment if there was no DEIBA+ commitment from the start?

 

The true problem: White advertising agencies are committed to systemic racism, recommitting at every opportunity—ultimately limiting DEIBA+ opportunities.

 

Why agencies need to recommit to diversity hiring

 

By Chris Witherspoon

 

Every February, someone asks me to write something. A reflection. A rally cry. A “here’s how far we’ve come.”

 

And this year? I’m not sure what to say.

 

Black History Month is nearly over. The calendar says celebration. LinkedIn says thought leadership. But if I’m honest, what I feel most right now isn’t inspiration.

 

It’s concern. Because the numbers aren’t moving the way we hoped.

 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black professionals make up roughly 13% of the U.S. workforce, but in advertising, PR, and related industries, that number sits closer to 6%–7%. Leadership representation is even thinner. Progress over the past decade has been incremental at best—flat in some places.

 

Industry reports from the 4As show that diversity hiring gains made in 2020 and 2021 have slowed or reversed as budgets tightened and mergers accelerated.

 

Add to that the political crosswinds around anything labeled DEI. In some boardrooms, the conversation has shifted from “How do we do more?” to “How do we stay out of the headlines?” Scrutiny is louder. Risk tolerance is lower. And inclusion is often the first thing quietly deprioritized.

 

At the grassroots level, we feel it too.

 

The BLAC Internship Program—the nonprofit I chair— exists to open doors for Black and underrepresented talent into marketing and communications careers. This year, we saw a record number of applicants. Interest didn’t cool—it climbed.

 

But agency participation has softened. Not because the talent disappeared, but because priorities have shifted. The result? More students are ready to step in, but fewer seats are available.

 

That gap is hard to ignore.

 

The same pattern is showing up at the 4As MAIP program, long considered the gold-standard pipeline into our industry. When hiring freezes hit, diverse candidates tend to feel it first.

 

To be clear: it’s hard for everyone right now. Mergers. Layoffs. AI disruption. Clients consolidating rosters. Entry-level hiring slowing. I own an agency; I understand the pressure.

 

But here’s what worries me. In moments of economic strain, inclusion gets reframed as optional. A “nice to have.” Something we’ll return to when times improve.

 

History suggests that when momentum pauses, regression follows. That’s the part I don’t want to normalize.

 

So what do I say this February?

 

If applications are down, we recruit harder. If hiring slows, we protect the pipeline. If belief is wavering, we demonstrate commitment.

 

Not performative posts. Not one-month campaigns. Sustained action.

 

Black History Month shouldn’t be the only time we talk about access and representation. It’s simply the reminder that progress isn’t permanent.

 

Maybe that’s the message this year: Not a celebration. A recommitment.

 

Chris Witherspoon is CEO of DNA&Stone and chair of BLAC

17373: Taking Whitewashing To Wuthering Heights.

 

 

From The New York Times…

 

Jacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over ‘Wuthering Heights’

 

The character’s racial identity is at the heart of accusations that the film’s casting is “whitewashing.” But what does the original novel really say?

 

By Esther Zuckerman

 

In Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” Heathcliff is described as a “dark-skinned gipsy.” In Emerald Fennell’s new film “Wuthering Heights,” the character is portrayed by Jacob Elordi, a white actor from Australia.

 

Ever since Elordi was announced in the role, the choice has stirred up controversy online, where authenticity in casting is highly prized. Some frustrated fans have argued that the casting whitewashes the role. But Brontë scholars say that much of what the author writes about the character’s race remains up for interpretation, even if the consensus is that he was probably not intended to be white.

 

As a boy, Heathcliff is brought into the home of Catherine Earnshaw (who becomes his romantic obsession) by her father, Mr. Earnshaw. Quite a few passages in the novel suggest that Brontë, who died a year after its publication, intended to write Heathcliff as a person of color. In addition to being called “dark” and a “gipsy,” he is also referred to as a “Lascar,” a term for South Asian laborers on British ships.

 

At one point, Heathcliff compares himself with Edgar Linton, whom Catherine will eventually marry, saying, “I wish I had light hair and fair skin.” The servant Nelly Dean suggests that Heathcliff could be a “prince in disguise,” continuing, “Who knows but your father was emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen.”

 

Susan Newby, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, said, “There is a sense that he is not white Anglo-Saxon, he’s something else, but you don’t know what that is.”

 

Some scholars believe that Brontë was using Heathcliff to comment on the Liverpool slave trade. Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff from Liverpool, and Nelly, who narrates this part of the action, explains that Earnshaw saw Heathcliff starving and asked after his “owner.”

 

It makes sense that Brontë would be interested in slavery. Her father, Patrick Brontë, was associated with the abolitionist politician William Wilberforce, who, according to the Parsonage Museum, helped pay for Patrick to study at Cambridge.

 

Reginald Watson, an associate professor of literature at East Carolina University, has studied questions of Blackness in the works of the Brontës, including Emily’s sister Charlotte, the “Jane Eyre” author. “My belief is that because of the father’s involvement in abolitionism that both of the authors included connections to slavery in some form,” Watson said. His position is that while Heathcliff “may not be totally Black,” he is mixed.

 

Another theory, however, is that Brontë was using Heathcliff to comment on prejudices against the Irish, since her father was from Ireland and she was writing at the start of the potato famine there. “Think about Heathcliff who was brought from Liverpool and speaks a sort of gibberish,” said Elsie Michie, a professor of English at Louisiana State University. “The description of Heathcliff conforms almost exactly to the caricatures of the Irish.”

 

Michie added that the “dynamics of this novel are about otherness in various ways, and that otherness is in Heathcliff.”

 

Onscreen, however, Heathcliff has largely been played by white actors, including Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and, perhaps most famously, Laurence Olivier in William Wyler’s 1939 version opposite Merle Oberon as Catherine. (Oberon actually was South Asian but hid that to ascend in Hollywood at the time.) A notable exception is Andrea Arnold’s 2012 adaptation, in which the adult Heathcliff was played by the Black actor James Howson. In an interview with NPR at the time, Arnold said, “In the book it was clear he wasn’t white-skinned. I felt that Emily was not committing exactly; she was playing with her own difference as a female.”

 

Fennell’s version does away with references to Heathcliff’s race, instead largely focusing on his tortured romance with Cathy (Margot Robbie). Still, the cast doesn’t lack diversity entirely. Nelly is played by the Vietnamese American actress Hong Chau, and Shazad Latif, who is of Pakistani descent, plays Edgar Linton.

 

Asked about the Heathcliff casting by The Hollywood Reporter, Fennell emphasized that her decision was based on how she saw the text. “I think the thing is everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only ever make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it,” she said.

 

Speaking at the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival, hosted by the Parsonage Museum last year, Fennell said she thought Elordi “looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff” on the first copy she read.

 

Fidelity in casting has continued to be a hot topic. After Odessa A’zion was hired for the forthcoming adaptation of Holly Brickley’s novel “Deep Cuts,” there was an uproar because her character is described as half-Jewish, half-Mexican, and A’zion has no Mexican heritage. She dropped out of the project and explained on Instagram, “I hadn’t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting.”

 

But while Newby, for instance, said she believes that Brontë presents Heathcliff as nonwhite, she also thinks the author leaves room for discussion. “She deliberately keeps it ambiguous,” Newby said.

 

At the same time, Newby isn’t bothered by Elordi’s casting, in part because Fennell has been so explicit about the film being from her own perspective. The director makes a number of major changes, getting rid of some characters and altering details of Cathy and Heathcliff’s interactions. “Somehow I feel more bothered by some past adaptations that have very unquestionably, unthinkingly showed him as being white without ever really reading the book and thinking, ‘Right, this is how it’s described,’” Newby said. “It was almost that was a default. You won’t be taken seriously as a lead if he’s not white.”

 

The mystery is also part of the appeal of Heathcliff: We never do learn his origins before Earnshaw brings him into that household.

17372: BHM 2026—NADI Marketing.

 

 

NADI Marketing presents “9 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month: Campaigns & Partnerships Ideas for Sustainable Brands”—comprised of 5 BHM Campaign Ideas and 4 Strategic Partnerships for BHM.

 

It’s a cornucopia of competent creative conception for the culturally clueless—likely delivered for crumbs.

17371: BHM 2026—The UK.

 

In the UK, Black History Month will be celebrated October 1–31, 2026. Yet the official website already features lots of content.

 

The 2026 UK BHM Theme is: “Reclaiming Narratives”—which seeks to highlight untold stories, correct historical inaccuracies, and celebrate the contributions of Black people to British society.

 

According to the website, the festivities will include “Honouring Black Britain 2026”—an “initiative to formally recognise Black individuals whose lives, leadership, and service have made a measurable and meaningful contribution to Britain.”

 

Hey, Black history is British history too.

17370: BHM 2026—Kellogg’s.

It might not be an official BHM 2026 tribute, but MediaPost reported Kellogg’s gave Tony the Tiger a hip-hop reboot.

 

The campaign underscores how White brands, White advertising agencies, and White critters love hip hop.

 

Cultural appropriation is Gr-r-reat!

 

Kellogg’s Gives Tony The Tiger Hip Hop Reboot

 

By Sarah Mahoney

 

In an effort to encourage kids to tap their inner tiger, Kellogg’s is rethinking a classic mascot — and his theme song. The new effort positions the big cat as one of the original “Day Ones,” a long-time friend to teens looking for a mood boost at the breakfast table.

 

Hip-hop artist J.I.D. reimagines Tony’s iconic 1990s jingle, “Hey Tony,” tying it to a limited-edition Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes release. To build cultural buzz, the brand is also introducing Tony the Tiger x J.I.D. “Day Ones” merchandise, along with a special “Day Ones” cereal box featuring J.I.D. on the packaging. A QR code takes people to a full-length version of the track on Spotify.

 

The drop includes a full-length version of the track, with original verses designed to echo Tony’s signature motivational energy — a reflection, the company says, of the confidence and optimism the brand hopes to inspire.

 

“Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger have always stood for encouragement and belief,” said Laura Newman, vice president of brand marketing at WK Kellogg Co., in the release. “Hip-hop is a culture built on that same energy, so teaming up with J.I.D. was a natural connection for us to bring back ‘Hey Tony’ in a way that honors helping to bring out your greatness for a new generation.”

 

The packaging also includes a QR code linking to the track on Spotify. The song is set to debut next week at the brand’s “Day Ones” Bowl Game, a showcase featuring a marching-band-driven pep rally, including a performance by Stephenson High School’s “Sonic Sound” Marching Band from Stone Mountain, Georgia, J.I.D.’s alma mater. Four local teams will compete in a 7-on-7 football playoff for the title.

 

WK Kellogg Co., home to numerous breakfast cereal brands, was acquired last summer by the Ferrero Group for $3.1 billion. The Luxembourg-based company, best known for its extensive candy portfolio, described the acquisition as part of its growth strategy to expand across more consumption occasions “with renowned beloved brands and strong consumer relevance.” 

17369: Reverend Jesse Jackson (1941–2026).

 

From The Guardian…

 

Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, dies aged 84

 

By Melissa Hellmann and Martin Pengelly

 

The Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran strongly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, has died. He was 84.

 

“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement.

 

“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

 

No cause of death was given.

 

Jackson had had progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) for more than a decade. He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was also twice hospitalised with Covid in recent years.

 

A fixture in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics since the 1960s, Jackson was once close to Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

 

In an interview with the Guardian in May 2020, Jackson said: “I was a trailblazer, I was a pathfinder. I had to deal with doubt and cynicism and fears about a Black person running. There were Black scholars writing papers about why I was wasting my time. Even Blacks said a Black couldn’t win.”

 

Twenty years after his second run for president, the first Black president, Barack Obama, saluted Jackson for making his victory possible. Obama celebrated in Chicago, also home to Jackson.

 

“It was a big moment in history,” Jackson told the Guardian, 12 years later. In an interview with NPR, Jackson said: “I cried because I thought about those who made it possible who were not there … People who paid a real price: Ralph Abernathy, Dr King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, those who fought like hell [at the Democratic national convention] in Atlantic City in 64, those in the movement in the south.”

 

During the Covid pandemic, Jackson campaigned against disparities in care and outcomes, asking: “After 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination, why would anybody be shocked that African Americans are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus?”

 

He also said all past presidents had failed to “end the virus of white superiority and fix the multifaceted issues confronting African Americans”.

 

Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson became involved in politics at an early age as he navigated the segregated south. He was elected class president at the all-Black Sterling high school, where he also excelled in athletics. In 1959, he received a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. The Chicago White Sox offered the young Jackson a spot on their baseball team, but he decided to focus on his education instead.

 

During winter break his freshman year of college, Jackson returned home to Greenville and tried to obtain a book needed for his studies from the white-only Greenville public library, but he was turned away. The experience stayed with him. A few months later on 16 July 1960, Jackson and seven Black high school students entered the Greenville library for a peaceful protest. After browsing the library and reading books, the group later known as the Greenville Eight were arrested for disorderly conduct and later released on a $30 bond. A judge eventually ruled that they had the right to use the publicly funded institution, and the Greenville library system became integrated in September 1960.

 

Jackson did not return to the University of Illinois after his first year, and instead transferred to the historically Black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, where he played football as a quarterback, was the national officer for the Black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, and was elected the student body president. While earning a sociology degree, he also continued his activism by participating in sit-ins at restaurants in Greensboro.

 

“My leadership skills came from the athletic arena,” Jackson told the Washington Post in 1984. “In many ways, they were developed from playing quarterback. Assessing defenses; motivating your own team. When the game starts, you use what you’ve got – and don’t cry about what you don’t have. You run to your strength. You also practice to win.”

 

During college, Jackson met his future wife Jacqueline, whom he married in 1962 and later had five children with – Santita, Jesse Jr, Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois, and Jacqueline Jr. He would later go on to have a sixth child, Ashley, during an extramarital affair with Karin Stanford in the early 2000s.

 

Jackson first met King, who would become his mentor, at an airport in Atlanta in the early 1960s. King had followed Jackson’s student activism from afar for several years.

 

In 1964, Jackson enrolled at the Chicago Theological Seminary, as he continued to be involved in the civil rights movement. Jackson travelled with his classmates to Selma, Alabama, to join the movement after he watched news footage of Bloody Sunday, where nonviolent civil rights marchers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, were then beaten by law enforcement officers. Impressed by Jackson’s leadership at Selma, King offered him a position with the civil rights group that he co-founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

 

After a couple of years, Jackson put his seminary studies on hold to focus on SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket, an economic justice program that harnessed the power of Black churches by calling on ministers to pressure companies to employ more Black people through negotiations and boycotts. In 1967, Jackson became Operation Breadbasket’s national director, and was ordained as a minister a year later.

 

“We knew he was going to do a good job,” King said at an Operation Breadbasket meeting in 1968, “but he’s done better than a good job.”

 

Tragedy struck soon after Jackson gained a leadership position at SCLC. On 4 April 1968, Jackson witnessed King’s assassination from below the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

The experience stayed with Jackson for the rest of his life. “Every time I think about it, it’s like pulling a scab off a sore,” he told the Guardian in 2018. “It’s a hurtful, painful thought: that a man of love is killed by hate; that a man of peace should be killed by violence; a man who cared is killed by the careless.”

 

Following King’s death, Jackson continued to work for SCLC until 1971, when he created his own organization to improve Black people’s economic conditions, People United to Save Humanity (Push). The organization hosted reading programs for Black youth and helped them find jobs, and also encouraged corporations to hire more Black managers and executives.

 

In 1984, Jackson ran as a Democratic candidate for president, becoming the second Black person to launch a nationwide campaign following Shirley Chisholm more than a decade earlier.

 

“Tonight we come together bound by our faith in a mighty God, with genuine respect and love for our country, and inheriting the legacy of a great party, the Democratic party, which is the best hope for redirecting our nation on a more humane, just, and peaceful course,” Jackson told an audience at the 1984 Democratic national convention in San Francisco, California.

 

“This is not a perfect party. We’re not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.” He lost the Democratic nomination to former vice-president Walter Mondale, with the incumbent Republican president Ronald Reagan ultimately winning the election.

 

After his first presidential run, Jackson created the National Rainbow Coalition to push for voting rights and social programs. In the mid-1990s, Jackson merged his two organizations together to form the multiracial group Rainbow Push Coalition, which focuses on educational and economic equality. Throughout the years, the coalition has paid more than $6m in college scholarships, and gave financial assistance to more than 4,000 families facing foreclosures so that they could save their homes, according to their website.

 

Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination for president a second time in 1988, performing strongly but losing out to Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts governor, who was beaten heavily in the general election by George HW Bush.

 

In 2000, the then president, Bill Clinton, awarded Jackson the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his decades of work focused on increasing opportunities for people of color.

 

Jackson took King’s work forward, staying to the fore in the worldwide civil rights movement through a tumultuous half-century of American history, through to the election of Donald Trump and the rise of Black Lives Matter.

 

“Dr King believed in multiracial, multicultural coalitions of conscience, not ethnic nationalism,” Jackson said in 2018. “He felt nationalism – whether Black, white or brown – was narrowly conceived, given our global challenges. So having a multiracial setting said much about his vision of America and the world, what America should stand for as well as the world.

 

“The arc of the moral universe is long and it bends towards justice, but you have to pull it to bend. It doesn’t bend automatically. Dr King used to remind us that every time the movement has a tailwind and goes forward, there are headwinds.

 

“Those who oppose change in some sense were re-energised by the Trump demagoguery. Dr King would have been disappointed by his victory but he would have been prepared for it psychologically. He would have said: ‘We must not surrender our spirits. We must use this not to surrender but fortify our faith and fight back.’”

 

This article was amended on 16 February 2026 because an earlier version incorrectly suggested that the first Selma march, known as Bloody Sunday, was led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr.