US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies

The protege of Martin Luther King Jr. has passed away at 84

US civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Jesse L. Jackson died on Tuesday at the age of 84. A protege of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson was with his mentor when he was assassinated in 1968.

Jackson dedicated his life to activism for political and humanitarian causes, including voting rights, healthcare access, and economic and racial equality. His daughter Santita Jackson confirmed he died at his home in Chicago.

”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 shared by his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

”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.”

Born Jesse Louis Burns in 1941 in South Carolina, he was adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, who married his mother. His political activism began while he was a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, where he transferred in 1960.

Jackson was with Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights leader was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

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He later clashed with Ralph Abernathy, who succeeded King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1971, he broke away to form his own organization based in Chicago’s South Side.

Jackson ran for president in 1984 and again in 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in his second bid. His success on the national stage is considered the precursor to President Barack Obama’s history-making campaign in 2008 in which he was elected the first black US president.

Jackson was often accused of shaking down major American corporations. According to author Kenneth R. Timmerman, he would allege racism and threaten them with boycotts and negative publicity, only backing off after the companies agreed to his demands, which often included making donations to his tax-exempt organizations or directing contracts to businesses run by his friends and family.

In 2017, Jackson sought treatment for Parkinson’s disease. He stepped down as president of Rainbow/PUSH in 2023 but continued public appearances even as his speech declined. In his final months, he battled progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder.