The Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, Baptist minister, veteran organizer, and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, died Tuesday at 84, his family announced. They said he died peacefully, surrounded by relatives; no cause of death was given, though Jackson had suffered from poor health in his later years, reports NBC News. "Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," Jackson's family said in a statement. "We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. 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." The Rainbow PUSH Coalition said public observances will be held in Chicago, with additional memorial plans to come.
Jackson, who had lived for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy and disclosed a Parkinson's diagnosis in 2017, rose to prominence in the 1960s alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, he became active with the Congress of Racial Equality, joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and helped lead its Operation Breadbasket economic empowerment program. He marched in Selma in 1965 and was with King in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968.
In the decades that followed, Jackson blended pulpit, protest, and politics. He founded PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in 1971 to push for economic gains for Black Americans, later creating the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984 to challenge President Reagan's agenda and build a multiracial, working-class bloc. His presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 broke ground for Black candidates, winning significant shares of the primary vote and multiple contests, even as he drew criticism from some Democrats and faced backlash for anti-Jewish slurs he later acknowledged and apologized for.
Jackson's work extended beyond US borders. He helped secure the release of Americans held in Syria, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Gambia, efforts that earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 2000. At home, he remained a vocal presence well into his later years, pressing for voting rights, criticizing both Democratic and Republican leaders when he saw civil rights at risk, and endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2020.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
