Reverend Jesse Jackson, a pioneering US civil rights activist and one of the nation’s most influential Black leaders, passed away peacefully Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family announced.
Jackson, a Baptist minister, had been a leading figure in the civil rights movement since the 1960s, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and raising funds for the movement.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” his family said.
“His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
While the family did not specify the cause of death, Jackson had publicly revealed in 2017 that he lived with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological disorder. He was also hospitalized last November for observation related to another neurodegenerative condition, according to reports.
A gifted speaker and skilled mediator in international conflicts, Jackson spent more than six decades amplifying the voice of African Americans on the national and global stage.
He was the most prominent Black candidate for the US presidency, running twice for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1980s before Barack Obama became president in 2009.
Jackson witnessed many historic moments in the fight for racial justice, including standing alongside King in Memphis in 1968 when the civil rights leader was assassinated. He openly wept in the crowd as Obama celebrated his 2008 election and stood with George Floyd’s family in 2021 following a conviction of the officer responsible for his death.
Born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson was raised by an unwed teenage mother and later took the surname of his stepfather, Charles Jackson. “I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hands,” he once reflected.
Excelling academically and athletically in segregated schools, Jackson earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois before transferring to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he earned a degree in sociology.
He took part in his first sit-in in 1960 in Greenville and joined the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965, catching King’s attention. Over the years, he became a key international mediator, advocating against apartheid in South Africa and serving as presidential special envoy for Africa under Bill Clinton. He also led missions to secure the release of American prisoners in Syria, Iraq, and Serbia.
In 1996, Jackson founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a Chicago-based organization promoting social justice and political activism. He is survived by his wife and six children.
