The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a prominent civil rights advocate and two-time presidential candidate, died on Tuesday at the age of 84. Known for his work alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and founding the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson dedicated his life to fighting for equality and social justice. His family described him as a servant leader to the oppressed worldwide.
Rev. Jesse Jackson was born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, in a small house where he began his activism early. As a freshman at the University of Illinois, he participated in a sit-in at a segregated library in 1960, leading to his arrest as part of the "Greenville Eight." He later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College.
Jackson's involvement deepened in 1965 when he marched in Selma, Alabama, for voting rights. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under Martin Luther King Jr., becoming Chicago coordinator and later national director of Operation Breadbasket in 1967, aimed at improving economic conditions for Black communities. He was present in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated.
By 1971, Jackson left the SCLC to found Operation PUSH, focusing on political empowerment for Black Americans. He merged it with the National Rainbow Coalition to create the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968, Jackson gained national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1983, his voter registration drive in Chicago helped elect the city's first Black mayor, Harold Washington. Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, the second Black candidate after Shirley Chisholm, registering over a million new voters and earning 3.5 million votes. At the Democratic Convention, he spoke of a "Rainbow Coalition" of disenfranchised groups: "This is not a perfect party. We're not a perfect people. Yet, we are called to a perfect mission."
His campaign faced criticism over remarks about New York's Jewish community and ties to Louis Farrakhan, for which he apologized. He placed third behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. In 1988, Jackson won several primaries, finishing second to Michael Dukakis, marking a milestone for Black political aspirations until Barack Obama's 2008 victory.
Globally, Jackson secured hostage releases from countries like Syria, Cuba, and Serbia. He hosted CNN's "Both Sides with Jesse Jackson" from 1992 to 2000 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 from President Bill Clinton. Personal controversies included a 2001 admission of fathering a child with a staff member and a 2008 apology to Obama for off-air comments.
Jackson's son, Jesse Jackson Jr., resigned from Congress in 2012 and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2013 for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017, Jackson was later found to have progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). He contracted COVID-19 in 2021 and stepped down from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2023. On November 12, he was hospitalized for PSP. He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and six children. Public commemorations are planned in Chicago.
The Jackson family stated: "Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world."
