20 years before 'Oscars So White,’ Rev. Jesse Jackson took on the Academy Awards

20 years before 'Oscars So White,’ Rev. Jesse Jackson took on the Academy Awards

Nearly 20 years before Black Twitter’s #OscarsSoWhite campaign generated a firestorm over the lack of Black nominees at the Academy Awards, Rev. Jesse Jackson lit a spark with a call to protest the 1996 ceremony.That year, just one Black person, short film director Dianne Houston, was included among 166 nominees.“We are going to open up the consciousness of Hollywood,” said Jackson, who died at 84 on Tuesday. The Chicago civil rights leader call…