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REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, the US Civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has died aged 84, his family has said.
In a statement today, the Jackson family said Reverend Jackson died peacefully Tuesday surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline and six children.
Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017 and also lived with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disease.
Born in South Caroline, Jackson was active in the civil rights era, participating in demonstrations alongside the Martin Luther King Jr. He also founded the US non-profit Rainbow Push Collective in 1996, an organisation fighting for social change.
Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 1984 and 1988.
In 2000, president Bill Clinton awarded Jackson with the US’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Jackson’s family said his “unwavering commitment” to justice, equality and human rights helped shape a “global movement” for freedom and dignity.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” they said in a statement.
“A tireless change agent, he elevated the voices of the voiceless – from his Presidential campaigns in the 1980s to mobilising millions to register to vote – leaving an indelible mark on history,” the statement said.
“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.”
Jackson was present for many consequential moments in the long battle for racial justice in the US.
He was with King in Memphis in 1968 when the civil rights leader was killed, openly wept in the crowd as Barack Obama celebrated his 2008 presidential election, and stood with George Floyd’s family in 2021 after a court convicted an ex-police officer of the unarmed Black man’s murder.
“My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised,” Jackson told the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a leader in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
His debut White House campaign supported a massive jobs expansion, ending the nation’s “war on drugs” and its mandatory minimum sentences for drug users, and improving equality for women and minorities.
Four years later, Jackson was back on the convention stage after coming in second to nominee Michael Dukakis, urging Americans to find “common ground.”
“That’s the challenge of our party tonight. Left wing, right wing… It takes two wings to fly,” he said, in a cadence reminiscent of King’s.
Jackson attacked what he called the “reverse Robin Hood” of a Reagan presidency that bestowed riches on the wealthy while leaving poor Americans struggling.
“It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t you surrender,” he said as the crowd roared.
While his electric speech raised Jackson’s profile, the nation’s gradual tilt to the right deprived him of major political influence in later years.
With additional reporting from AFP
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