Abby Phillip will tell the story of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s two presidential runs in a new biography, People magazine reports.
Flatiron will publish the CNN anchor’s A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power in the fall. The press says that in the book, Phillip “highlights how Jackson built an unlikely coalition that showed how Black political power could be consolidated.”
Jackson, a native of South Carolina, was active in the Civil Rights Movement, working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and leading Operation Breadbasket, an organization that promoted Black businesses. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968 and founded the group Operation PUSH in 1971.
In 1984, he founded the National Rainbow Coalition, another civil rights group. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination that year and came in third, following former Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. Gary Hart. He ran again in 1988, losing to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. He has since remained active in political activism.
This will be the first book from Phillip, who has anchored CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip since 2023. Flatiron says, “With her expert reporting, natural storytelling skills, and a story so full of humanity, politics, and hope, Abby Phillip has written a rousing popular history that sheds new light on an American icon.”
On Instagram, Phillip shared a clip of her announcing her book on CNN, saying, “This is a book about a really important piece of American political history....This book takes a look at Jackson’s political legacy more than 40 years later, and I cannot wait for you all to read it.”
A Dream Deferred is scheduled for publication on October 28.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
