The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader, Baptist minister and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, has died at the age of 84, his family confirmed Tuesday.
Jackson passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones, according to a family statement that described him as a “servant leader” devoted not only to his family but also to “the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world.” The statement praised his “unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love” and urged supporters to honor his memory by continuing the causes he championed.
A cause of death was not immediately released. Jackson had been living for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy and publicly disclosed a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017.
Born Jesse Louis Burns in 1941 in segregated Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson grew up amid poverty and racial segregation. He would go on to become one of the most recognizable figures in American public life, rising to prominence during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Jackson joined Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and led Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, focusing on economic activism. In 1971, he founded People United to Save Humanity, which later merged into what became known as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization he led for decades.
An impassioned and often fiery speaker, Jackson frequently described himself as an advocate for “the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.” He urged Democrats to form a multiracial “rainbow coalition” centered on poor and working-class Americans, helping shape the progressive wing of the party.
Jackson carried that message into two historic presidential bids. At the 1984 Democratic National Convention, his speech became a defining moment of the campaign season, even though he ultimately failed to unseat then-President Ronald Reagan. The campaign nonetheless left a lasting imprint on Democratic politics.
In 1988, Jackson again sought the Democratic nomination, returning to the convention stage with his memorable refrain, “Keep hope alive.” He tied his personal story of poverty and hardship to a broader call for unity and “common ground.” Though he did not win the nomination in either race, Jackson’s campaigns marked the first time a Black candidate became a serious contender in a major party presidential primary, winning millions of votes and multiple contests.
His platform focused on voting rights and economic justice and influenced Democratic Party debates for years, even as party leaders ultimately declined to place him at the top of the ticket.
Beyond domestic politics, Jackson also worked to secure the release of detained Americans abroad. In 2000, former President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his decades of activism.
In his later years, even as his health declined, Jackson remained active in public life. He was arrested in Washington in 2021 while protesting Republican-backed voting reforms. He also pressed major corporations in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street over diversity and minority contracting, and joined boycotts against companies he accused of stepping back from civil rights commitments.
Jackson formally stepped down as leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2023 but continued appearing at rallies and voter registration events, framing debates over ballot access and economic opportunity as unfinished work from the movement he helped bring into the political mainstream.
His death marks the passing of a figure who, for decades, stood at the intersection of civil rights activism and national politics.
