Jesse L. Jackson is a civil rights leader, minister, and politician whose activism began in the 1960s alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He founded Operation PUSH in 1971 and the Rainbow Coalition in 1984, organizations that advanced economic opportunity and political empowerment for Black Americans. Jackson twice ran for the presidency, in 1984 and 1988, breaking new ground as a major Black candidate in national politics. In 1990, he won election as shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia, and he has continued to advocate for nonviolent social change and equal rights in America and abroad.