Jesse Jackson, the Baptist minister and civil rights leader who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and elevated Black political power for more than six decades, died peacefully this morning at 84, his family said in a statement.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family said. “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.”
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A dynamic orator and a deft mediator in international crises, Jackson helped define the modern civil rights era and its global reach. He was the most prominent Black American to seek the U.S. presidency in the 20th century, mounting two bids for the Democratic nomination in the 1980s, decades before Barack Obama won the White House in 2008. Jackson openly wept in the crowd the night Obama celebrated his election victory.
Jackson’s life traced the arc of the civil rights movement. Born Jesse Louis Burns on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, he later took the last name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson. “I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hands,” he once said. He excelled in his segregated high school, earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois, and later transferred to the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, a historically Black institution, where he graduated with a sociology degree.
His first sit-in came in 1960 in Greenville. By 1965, he had joined the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, drawing the attention of King. Jackson stood with King in Memphis in 1968 when the civil rights leader was assassinated, a searing moment that propelled Jackson’s rise as a national figure determined to continue the work.
In the decades that followed, Jackson built influence across pulpits, picket lines and political stages. He founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 1996, merging economic justice and voting-rights advocacy from Chicago into a national platform focused on opportunity and accountability. He also became a leading voice against apartheid, pressing for sanctions on South Africa and later serving as a bridge between grassroots movements and U.S. policymakers.
Successive presidents turned to him as an envoy and troubleshooter. In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton named him special envoy for Africa. Jackson led missions to Syria, Iraq and Serbia to win the release of detained Americans, negotiating face to face and often returning home with freed prisoners.
At home, he remained a consistent presence at flashpoints of American conscience. He stood alongside George Floyd’s family in 2021 after a jury convicted a former Minneapolis police officer of murder, hailing a verdict that he said affirmed the value of Black lives. That same year, France awarded him the Legion of Honour, recognizing his decades of advocacy for human rights and democracy.
Jackson had faced health challenges in recent years and was hospitalized for observation in November, according to media reports. His family did not disclose a cause of death.
He is survived by his wife and six children.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
