Pinback Button, "Jesse Cares"

Between 1983 and 1984

This pinback button supported Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s historic run for president in 1983-1984. Jackson broke ground first trod by Shirley Chisolm, becoming the second African American to run nationally for a major party’s nomination in a presidential primary. The white-and-blue button’s message matches its simple design: “Jesse Cares.” The button belonged to journalist Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), a Chicago native who moved to the nation’s capital in 1952 to cover national and international news for the preeminent African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender. A lifelong civil rights activist, Payne reported from thirty countries over the course of her own pioneering career, becoming known as the First Lady of the Black Press.