Veteran American civil rights leader and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84, his family has announced.
In a statement released by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the family said Jackson died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. No immediate cause of death was given, but the organisation confirmed he had lived for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy and previously disclosed a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017. He had received medical care at Northwestern Medicine.
Born in Greenville, Jackson rose to national prominence during the US civil rights era, working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and later becoming one of the most recognisable figures in Black political activism in the United States.
He began his organising career with the Congress of Racial Equality, studied at North Carolina A&T State University, and continued his theological training at Chicago Theological Seminary. He also took part in the historic Selma civil rights campaign and later joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where he ran its economic empowerment initiative, Operation Breadbasket.
Jackson was in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968 and went on to found People United to Save Humanity in 1971, which later evolved into today’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
He entered national politics with two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, helping to broaden Black political participation and reshape the party’s electoral coalition. His later political organising was anchored by the National Rainbow Coalition, which opposed the policies of Ronald Reagan and pushed for social justice reforms.
Tributes poured in following his death, including from fellow civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who credited Jackson with extending King’s legacy and helping to make the civil rights movement a truly national force.
Beyond domestic activism, Jackson was also known for international humanitarian and diplomatic interventions, helping to secure the release of detained Americans in several countries. In recognition of those efforts, he was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton.
In later years, Jackson remained an outspoken voice in American politics, commenting frequently on leaders such as Barack Obama, sharply criticising Donald Trump, and endorsing Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential race.
Public memorial events will be held in Chicago, with further funeral and celebration-of-life arrangements to be announced by the family and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.