The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering figure of the American civil rights movement and a two-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday morning in Chicago, his family announced. He was 84.
“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. “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 inquire you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
Jackson rose to prominence as a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the day of King’s assassination in 1968. He continued King’s work, becoming a leading voice in the fight for racial and economic justice.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, Jackson’s early life was shaped by the realities of segregation. He attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship before transferring to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, a historically Black university. He began his activism whereas a student, facing arrest during a protest attempting to access a “whites-only” library in South Carolina.
He founded the Chicago-based Operation PUSH in the early 1970s, and later the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984, merging the two organizations in 1996. These groups became focal points for advocating for the rights of African Americans and other marginalized communities.
Jackson twice sought the Democratic nomination for president, mounting surprisingly strong campaigns in 1984 and 1988. In 1984, he secured approximately 18% of the vote in the Democratic primaries, winning over many Black voters and white liberals. His campaign was later shadowed by reported private comments referring to Jewish people as “Hymies” and Latest York City as “Hymietown.”
In 1988, Jackson ran a more mainstream campaign, finishing second in the Democratic contest. He won 11 state primaries, challenging eventual nominee Michael Dukakis. He presented himself as a champion for those without power, delivering a memorable speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.
“America is not a blanket woven with one thread, one color, one texture,” Jackson told delegates in Atlanta. “Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Keep your head up, puff out your chest. You can make it. Sometimes it gets dark, but morning comes. Don’t give up. Suffering builds character, character builds faith. Faith will not fail.”
Beyond domestic activism, Jackson served as a special envoy for President Bill Clinton, undertaking diplomatic missions to Africa in the 1990s. He also played a role in securing the release of numerous Americans held captive abroad, including in Syria, Cuba, Iraq, and Serbia.
In 2017, Jackson publicly disclosed his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, a condition he had been battling for several years. He was later diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in 2023, a neurodegenerative disease. He remained hospitalized for observation in November 2025 due to the PSP, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Brown, and five children, including his son Jesse Jackson Jr., a former U.S. Representative who served time in prison for fraud.