The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., the towering civil rights leader who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and blazed an unprecedented trail through American politics with two groundbreaking presidential campaigns, died Tuesday morning at age 84.
Jackson died in Chicago surrounded by family after battling progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a degenerative neurological condition he had managed for years. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline Jackson, whom he married in 1962, and six children—five with Jacqueline and daughter Ashley from a later relationship.
“Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement.
Jackson’s death marks the end of an era for the American civil rights movement. Born October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, during the Jim Crow era, Jackson rose from poverty to become one of the nation’s most influential voices for racial and economic justice.
As a young activist in the 1960s, Jackson participated in landmark moments of the civil rights movement, including the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama in 1965. In 1966, at just 24 years old, he became head of the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, the economic activism arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and was appointed national director the following year.
Jackson was with Dr. King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when the civil rights icon was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The experience shaped Jackson’s determination to carry forward King’s vision of racial and economic equality.
In 1971, Jackson founded Operation PUSH—People United to Save Humanity—to advocate for social and economic parity for Black Americans. He later established the National Rainbow Coalition following his first presidential campaign, merging the organizations in 1996 to create the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Jackson’s presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 shattered political barriers and transformed American electoral politics. In 1984, he placed third for the Democratic nomination. Four years later, his campaign gained even more momentum, winning 11 primaries and caucuses and finishing second with 6.9 million total votes. His 1988 run represented the most successful presidential campaign by a Black candidate until Barack Obama’s historic victory two decades later.
Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition brought together a bold alliance of diverse Americans—Black, White, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and LGBTQ people—creating a template for progressive politics that influenced generations of Democratic leaders, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Kamala Harris.
His signature phrase “Keep hope alive” became a rallying cry for social justice movements and remains emblematic of his unwavering optimism in the face of systemic inequality.
President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, the nation’s highest civilian honor, recognizing his lifetime of service to civil rights and social justice.
Jackson’s health had declined significantly in recent months. He was hospitalized in November 2025 for complications from PSP, though the family clarified he was “in stable condition and breathing without the assistance of machines.” He was released the following week but returned to an acute-care facility in mid-December 2025, where doctors treated him for several infections consistent with the progression of his diagnosis.
Jackson initially announced a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2017. The PSP diagnosis came later. The neurological condition affects movement, balance, vision, and speech.
Throughout his life, Jackson championed the marginalized and powerless. He negotiated the release of hostages abroad, fought for workers’ rights, and challenged corporate America to increase diversity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he demanded accountability for health disparities affecting Black communities.
Jackson also served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997, continuing his advocacy for political representation for the nation’s capital.
Before his civil rights work, Jackson attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship but transferred to North Carolina A&T, a historically Black university. While home during winter break in 1959, he was turned away from Greenville’s white-only public library. In July 1960, he and seven other Black students—later known as the Greenville Eight—staged a peaceful protest at the library. They were arrested but ultimately won the right to use the publicly funded institution, integrating Greenville’s library system by September 1960.
Jackson was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968, combining his spiritual calling with his lifelong commitment to justice. His powerful oratory and moral authority made him a sought-after voice on issues of race, poverty, and human rights for more than five decades.
Former President Barack Obama captured Jackson’s legacy in a statement: “In his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”