The Rainbow Challenge

First
published in 1986, Sheila Collins's eyewitness account of Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow Coalition remains a crucial document on the future of multiracial
politics and ultimately of democracy in the United States. Collins, a field
organizer and national officer during the Jackson campaign, examined the
movement in detail, drawing on her own experiences and observations, as well
as interviews with people around the country who have worked in the Rainbow
Coalition. She pays particular attention to the class and ideological
struggles within it-struggles not only between party Democrats and grassroots
activists, but between alternative visions of black nationalism and
multiracial politics. In a new preface, Collins reflects on the lessons and
inspiration of her experience forty years later and on the continued
challenge to keep Jackson's vision alive.
"A comprehensive study of Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign. This
concise and well-written work is a fine example of politically engaged
scholarship. A blueprint for future democratic struggles."-Manning Marable
(1950-2011), author, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention



"Offers important insights into the need for effective coalition building
to transform the substance of American politics-politics that will deal with
the issues rather than personalities; politics that will broaden the
participatory process rather than restrict it." -Congressman Ronald Dellums
(1935-2018)



"An insider's view of the project, practice, and problems of the Rainbow
Coalition, in sharp contrast to the fashionable ivory-tower treatments of the
Jackson campaign far removed from the heat of battle."-Cornel West