Leid Stories – 02.23.16

Party Favors: The Jesse Jackson-Bernie Sanders Diss-Connection

Four days to the Democratic Party’s fourth primary—this one in South Carolina—and all eyes are on the state’s black vote, which could put Hillary Clinton way ahead of Bernie Sanders on the road to the party’s nomination or validate and broaden the appeal of Sanders’ populist campaign. Either way, the South Carolina primary will be a historic marker, a watershed moment, as it was three decades ago, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson made a long-shot bid for the presidency and found political salvation in the black vote from his home state and support from the then-mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Leid Stories explains the parallels in Jackson’s and Sanders’ presidential bids and the civil-rights leader’s sudden aversion to progressive politics.