Black text and an outline of the United States with a red, yellow, brown, white and black rainbow behind it on a white background
Jesse Jackson's 1984 campaign was his first run for president. The appearance of the slogan, "The time is now" is unusual for memorabilia from this campaign. Much more common is the slightly altered phrase, "Now is the time", which appears on several buttons, t-shirts, and posters. The change may have been due to the fact that "The time is now" had been the campaign slogan for the Reagan-Bush presidential campaign of 1980.
The colors in the rainbow image are likely based on a statement Jackson made in his address to the Democratic National Convention of 1984. Advocating for a renewed Rainbow Coalition, Jackson said, "Our nation is a rainbow -red, yellow, brown, black, and white". The rainbow motif appears often in materials from Jackson's 1984 campaign, but as with the button's slogan, this color combination is unusual.
Jesse Jackson 1984 Democratic National Convention Address (2017, February 18). Retrieved from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jessejackson1984dnc.htm