Watch: Key moments that defined Jesse Jackson's life

The civil rights leader, who ran for president twice in the 1980s, leaves a lasting legacy.

Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition Was a Powerful Advocate for His Politics

The campaigning organization Jesse Jackson founded became the vehicle he used to push for social justice and change policy.

By Lynsey Chutel

Jesse Jackson in three photos

Three images document Jackson’s journey and his role in expanding the Constitution’s promise of freedom and opportunity.

By Eugene Robinson

Jesse Jackson was ‘direct connection to great civil rights era,’ says Diane Abbott

MP leads UK tributes to African American campaigner who has died aged 84 Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader, dies aged 84 Jesse Jackson was “a direct connection to the great era of civil rights,” Diane Abbott said, leading UK tributes to the African American icon. The Rev Jackson was also intimately connected to the battle for racial equality in the UK, where he campaigned to address institutional racism, as well as economic, health and criminal justice inequalities, for decades. Continue reading...

By Chris Osuh Community affairs correspondent

Trump remembers Jesse Jackson as 'good man,' 'force of nature'

Jesse Jackson 'proved that a black man could be a serious contender for the White House'

Charismatic US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at age 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. Despite never winning the nomination, Jackson did something arguably more significant – registering millions of new voters and proving that a black man could be a serious contender for the White House, FRANCE 24's Fraser Jackson said, reporting from Washington.

By FRANCE24

How Rev. Jesse Jackson paved the way for Obama and changed politics forever

Jackson’s two presidential runs fundamentally altered the U.S. political landscape

By Gibbs Knotts and Christopher A. Cooper

LA Mayor Bass joins calls for 2028 Olympics head Wasserman to leave over Epstein ties

Pressure built Tuesday on Casey Wasserman as head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing team after the city’s mayor urged him to leave over his historic ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told CNN late Monday “my opinion is that he should step down” despite Wasserman getting support last week from the games organizing board to stay. The issue has been a distraction for the International Olympic Committee this month since Wasserman’s flirtatious emails from 2003 with Ghislaine Maxwell were published in a release of United States government files days before the Milan Cortina Winter Games opened.

By GRAHAM DUNBAR

Jesse Jackson dead at 84: Inside his family life, net worth, career and controversies – all you need to know

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering figure of the American civil rights movement and two-time presidential candidate, has died aged 84. Rising from the segregated South to national politics, he spent decades campaigning for racial and economic justice. Admired and controversial in equal measure, Jackson’s legacy spans activism, electoral politics and diplomacy, shaping modern Democratic coalition-building in the United States.

By TOI World Desk

Civil Rights Leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Dead At 84

Civil Rights Leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Dead At 84 The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights activist and two-time presidential candidate, died on Tuesday at the age of 84, according to NBC News. Jackson's family released this statement: "Our father was a servant leader, not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world. We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. 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." Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton wrote in a statement that "our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices" and paid tribute to a man who "carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice." "Reverend Jackson stood wherever dignity was under attack, from apartheid abroad to injustice at home. His voice echoed in boardrooms and in jail cells. His presence shifted rooms. His faith never wavered," Sharpton said. The cause of death was not immediately given by the family; however, they said he died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. One important note: Jackson had been living with progressive supranuclear palsy for more than a decade. He was also hospitalized twice with Covid in recent years. Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941 and quickly became a civil rights leader, emerging as one of several disciples of Martin Luther King Jr. His activism spanned half a century, including two runs for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. "America is not like a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colours, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread," Jackson told the audience at the 1984 Democratic convention. "Even in our fractured state, all of us count and fit somewhere." During the Monica Lewinsky scandal at the White House, Jackson offered the Clinton family much-needed spiritual advice: "You need faith when storms come suddenly, so I really talked to Hillary and Chelsea about matters of faith and unconditional love." In the Obama years, Jackson stated, "We are a better America today." But as soon as the Trump era began, he warned, "The idea of making America great again reopens the wounds in America's immoral foundation, born in sin, and shaped in inequity." Tyler Durden Tue, 02/17/2026 - 06:55

By Tyler Durden

Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader and US presidential hopeful, dies at 84

Jackson, an inspirational orator and long-time Chicagoan, was diagnosed with Parkinson's...