June 1988

In his second presidential run, Jesse Jackson wins 13 primaries and caucuses, receives 6.9 million votes, and finishes second to Michael Dukakis. He wins Michigan, carrying significant white working-class support alongside Black voters. Jackson's candidacy forces the Democratic Party to address racial inequality more explicitly and dramatically expands Black political participation.

Public Enemy, led by Chuck D and Flavor Flav from Long Island, releases It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The album is a politically explicit condemnation of systemic racism, police brutality, the crack epidemic, and mass incarceration, with production by the Bomb Squad that critics call revolutionary. Rolling Stone later names it one of the greatest albums of all time.