The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering figure in the American civil rights movement and a two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday at the age of 84, his family announced. “Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement. No cause of death was immediately given, though Jackson had been diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) more than a decade ago, after initially being told he had Parkinson’s disease.
Jackson’s death marks the complete of an era for a man who profoundly shaped Democratic politics and opened doors for African Americans in leadership positions. He was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. And continued King’s work after his assassination in 1968, founding Operation Breadbasket and later the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 8, 1941, Jackson’s early life was defined by the segregation of the Jim Crow South. He excelled as an athlete and student, earning a football scholarship to the University of Illinois in 1959. A pivotal moment came during a winter break when he attempted to use the whites-only Greenville public library and was turned away. This experience led him to participate in a protest with seven other Black students in July 1960, resulting in their arrest for disorderly conduct. A subsequent federal lawsuit affirmed their right to access the publicly funded library, leading to its integration in September 1960.
Jackson later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, where he continued his activism, participating in sit-ins and serving as student body president. He met his future wife, Jacqueline, and married her in 1962, eventually having five children: Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois, and Jacqueline Jr. He later fathered a sixth child, Ashley, following an extramarital affair.
His path crossed with Martin Luther King Jr. In the early 1960s, and King became a mentor. After witnessing the violence of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in 1964, Jackson joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King recognized Jackson’s leadership potential, stating in 1968, “He’s done better than a good job.” Following King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson continued his work with the SCLC until 1971, when he founded People United to Save Humanity (PUSH).
Jackson first gained national prominence with his presidential campaigns. In 1984, he became the second African American to launch a nationwide bid for the presidency, following Shirley Chisholm’s groundbreaking run in 1972. While he did not win the nomination, he secured a significant number of delegates and raised vital issues of economic justice and racial equality. At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, he called for a “perfect mission” to “feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless.”
His 1988 campaign proved even more impactful. He achieved a surprise victory in the Michigan caucuses, briefly leading in delegates before ultimately losing the nomination to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. The campaign prompted the Democratic Party to change its rules, allowing candidates who received at least 15% of a state’s overall vote to receive a share of delegates, according to CBS News. Despite losing the nomination, Jackson garnered more than double the delegates he had in 1984, a performance described by the New York Times as making 1988 “the Year of Jackson.”
Jackson’s campaigns were credited with mobilizing Black voters and paving the way for Barack Obama’s historic election as the first Black president in 2008. Obama himself acknowledged Jackson’s influence, celebrating his victory in Chicago, Jackson’s home base.
Beyond his presidential bids, Jackson continued to advocate for social justice and economic equality through the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, providing scholarships and assistance to families facing foreclosure. He similarly pressured corporations to improve diversity in hiring and lending practices. He gained international recognition for negotiating the release of Americans held in Cuba in 1984, acting independently of the US government.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In recent years, Jackson continued to speak out on issues of racial justice, including disparities in healthcare during the Covid-19 pandemic, questioning why African Americans were dying disproportionately “after 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination.”
