Add the Rev. Jesse Jackson to the list of long-time civil rights leaders coming to the defense of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, portrayed in Oscar-nominated “Selma” as reluctant to push for passage of the Voting Rights Act.

In a revealing new book about the presidency and race, Jackson, a close ally of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., added LBJ to Abraham Lincoln and King as the three key transformational figures in American racial politics.