Pinback Button, “DC Make a Date for ‘88”

This pinback button urged Washington, DC residents to vote in 1988, a presidential election year heightened by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s name on the ballot in the primary. In 1984, Jackson became the second African American to campaign nationally for a major party’s nomination in the presidential primary. The red, white, and royal-blue button belonged to Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), a longtime District resident and political reporter. Amidst lifelong activism toward fulfilling African Americans’ voting rights, Payne filed stories from thirty countries over the course of her own pioneering career, becoming known as the First Lady of the Black Press.