When I heard Reverend Jesse Jackson died, I thought about my friend Julianne. I sent her a text. Over the years, Julianne shared stories about her work with him — the organizing, the coalitions, the fights most people never saw. And then I thought about rules.
He changed the rules — literally.
Before Reverend Jackson ran for president in 1984, the Democratic Party used delegate rules that heavily penalized second- and third-place finishes. Jackson won 21 percent of the popular vote in 1984 and received only 8 percent of the delegates. He knew the math wasn’t mathing.
He organized. He ran again.
In 1988, Jackson won the Michigan caucus and used his leverage to negotiate a structural change: high threshold rules were replaced with proportional allocation — any candidate who receives at least 15 percent of the vote in a state earns a share of that state’s delegates. That rule is still in place today.
Does changing how you count change who can win? Yes.
Shirley Chisholm ran before Jackson changed the rules
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm entered 12 primaries, was blocked from televised debates, and still earned 152 convention votes — the most by any Black candidate until Jackson himself in 1984, and the most by any woman until Hillary Clinton in 2008. Under the old rules, her votes in state after state produced almost nothing in delegates.
She ran anyway — and she was counting. The rules just weren’t built for her to win.
Barack Obama was the first to win under Jackson’s rules.
In 2008, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ran one of the closest Democratic primary contests in history. Obama lost several large states. Under the old rules, those losses would have been catastrophic. Instead, because of the proportional rules Jackson negotiated, Obama collected delegates even in states he lost — the exact scenario Jackson had envisioned decades earlier.
Jackson changed the rules so others could compete and win. That is also what TSA workers are still waiting for — rules that count (pay) them.
TSA workers are collateral damage
Under the current funding dispute, TSA workers are required to report to work without pay. They are essential — until it is time to write their checks.
They are collateral damage — of a political standoff over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that leaves Transportation Security Administration workers scanning bags without a paycheck. These workers, who lack the full collective bargaining protections afforded to most other federal employees, absorb the cost.
The data tell a story that aggregate numbers obscure. Hispanic women are the fastest-growing group in the TSA workforce — their share nearly doubled from 6% in 2010 to 10% in 2024. Black women, who were 10% in 2020, fell to 7% by 2024. White women’s share dropped from 17% to 12%. The diversification of the female TSA workforce is real, but it is uneven. Indigenous American women were 0% of TSA screeeners across all three years, and Multiracial women, though growing, remain at 3% (see Table 1).
Women’s share of the total TSA workforce remained flat — 35% in 2010, and 35% in 2024. The growth of Hispanic women was not women gaining ground overall. It was a compositional shift within the stable female share of TSA workers. As the share of White and Black women decreased, the share of Hispanic women increased. An important question is what is attractive to Hispanic women about being a TSA screener that has become distasteful to Black and White women?
The rules were written to count them, but not to pay them.
Table 1. TSA Transportation Security Screeners by Race/Sex, 2010–2024 (Percent of Total Workforce)
| Race/Sex | 2010 | 2020 | 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asian Men | 4% | 7% | 5% | 6% |
| Asian Women | 2% | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| Black Men | 18% | 14% | 14% | 15% |
| Black Women | 9% | 10% | 7% | 9% |
| Hispanic Men | 13% | 19% | 13% | 15% |
| Hispanic Women | 6% | 8% | 10% | 8% |
| Indigenous American Men | 1% | 0% | 2% | 1% |
| Indigenous American Women | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Multiracial Men | 3% | 2% | 3% | 3% |
| Multiracial Women | 0% | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| White Men | 26% | 25% | 28% | 26% |
| White Women | 17% | 12% | 12% | 13% |
| Men | 65% | 67% | 65% | 66% |
| Women | 35% | 33% | 35% | 34% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Source: Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race using American Community Survey data. www.ipums.org
Economic justice is multifaceted
In 1989, Reverend Jackson traveled to Wise County, Virginia, and joined more than 10,000 miners, union supporters, and community members at the Pittston Coal Strike wearing their camouflage in solidarity. He understood that poverty does not observe racial lines, even if policy often does.
When a plant closes in Appalachia, women are more likely to exit the labor force entirely than to register as unemployed. They disappear from the labor force, with consequences for the broader economy and the fiscal stability of their families. The 2024 poverty rate for Wise County, VA, was 19.5% up from 15.7% in 1980.
Jackson’s life reminds us that economic justice is never just one issue. It is the delegate who does not get counted, the coal miner’s wife who exits the labor force, the TSA officer working without pay. A fitting tribute is to make sure everyone is counted — in the data, in the rules, and in the policies that shape their lives.
“Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.” — Rev. Jesse Jackson
The Women’s Institute for Science Equity and Race’s first 10 years are the story of that sweat: doing the data work so that no community disappears in the averages. Registration for our 10th Anniversary closes on Sunday, February 22. If you haven’t registered, now is the time.
