Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies at 84; Trump pays tribute to 'force of nature'

Jesse Jackson:Lifelong fight for justice

Veteran US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson, one of the country’s most influential Black voices, died peacefully on Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family confirmed.

Jackson, a Baptist minister, had been at the forefront of the civil rights movement since the 1960s, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and helping raise funds for the cause.

“Our father was a servant leader -- not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” his family said. “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.”

The family did not disclose a cause of death. Jackson had revealed in 2017 that he was living with Parkinson’s disease, and he was hospitalised for observation in November for another neurodegenerative condition, according to media reports.

A compelling orator and skilled mediator in international disputes, Jackson spent more than six decades expanding opportunities for African Americans. He was the most prominent Black candidate to run for the US presidency, seeking the Democratic nomination twice in the 1980s, until Barack Obama’s historic election in 2009.

President Donald Trump praised Jackson as “a force of nature like few others before him,” adding that he had supported Trump both before and after his presidency as Jackson worked to empower Black Americans.

Long battle

Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president whose presidential bid was defeated by Trump in 2024, hailed Jackson as "one of America's greatest patriots."

She recalled driving to law school in the 1980s in California with a "Jesse Jackson for President" bumper sticker.

"You would not believe how people from every walk of life would give me a thumbs up or honk of support," she wrote on X.

Jackson was present for many consequential moments in the long battle for racial justice in the United States, including with King in Memphis in 1968 when the civil rights leader was slain.

He openly wept in the crowd as Obama celebrated his 2008 presidential election, and he stood with George Floyd's family in 2021 after a court convicted a police officer of the unarmed Black man's murder during an arrest.

Jackson was born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, to an unwed teen mother and a former professional boxer.

He later adopted the last name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson.

"I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hands," he once said.

He excelled in his segregated high school and earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois, but later transferred to the predominantly Black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, where he received a degree in sociology.

In 1960, he participated in his first sit-in, in Greenville, and then joined the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights marches in 1965, where he caught King's attention.

Jackson later emerged as a mediator and envoy on several notable international fronts.

He became a prominent advocate for ending apartheid in South Africa, and in the 1990s served as presidential special envoy for Africa for Bill Clinton.

Missions to free US prisoners took him to Syria, Iraq and Serbia.

He founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization focused on social justice and political activisim, in 1996

He is survived by his wife and six children.