Veteran American civil rights leader and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84, his family announced in a statement on 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 statement read. “His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honour his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
Raised in the segregated American South, Jackson rose to national prominence during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. A close associate and protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., he became one of the most recognisable voices advocating racial equality and economic justice in the United States.
Jackson later transitioned from activism into mainstream politics, becoming the first African American to mount a highly competitive campaign for a major party’s presidential nomination. He sought the Democratic nomination for president twice in the 1980s, building a broad coalition that championed minority communities, poor and working-class Americans.
His groundbreaking campaigns helped reshape the political landscape, opening doors for future leaders such as Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.
An inspirational orator and long-time Chicago resident, Jackson spent decades organising grassroots movements aimed at expanding political participation and improving the lives of African Americans and other marginalised groups. In 2017, he revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but remained a respected elder statesman within civil rights circles.
Tributes are pouring in across across the United States and beyond, honouring a figure whose life spanned the height of the civil rights era through to the election of the nation’s first Black president.
