Our Reporter, Abuja with abc NEWS
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, pioneering civil rights leader, Baptist minister and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, has died at 84, his family announced Tuesday.
“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, urging supporters to continue his fight for justice and equality.
Jackson is survived by his wife of more than six decades, Jacqueline Jackson, and six children.
A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson rose to national prominence during the civil rights movement, participating in the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma marches. He was present when King was assassinated in 1968.
In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH to advance economic and social justice for Black Americans, later merging it with the National Rainbow Coalition to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, which he led for more than 50 years before stepping down in 2023.
Jackson made historic presidential bids in 1984 and 1988, placing third and second respectively in the Democratic primaries — the most successful campaigns by a Black candidate until Barack Obama’s election in 2008. He also served as a shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia in the 1990s.
Over the decades, Jackson helped negotiate the release of American detainees abroad and remained an outspoken advocate for voting rights and racial equity.
He faced significant health challenges in recent years, including Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, recognizing his decades of activism.
Courtesy abc NEWS
