The Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner who was prominent for more than 50 years and who ran strongly for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, has died. He was 84.
Jackson's family said in a 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.'
Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson became involved in politics at an early age as he navigated the segregated south. He was a fixture in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics since the 1960s, and was once close to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In 1960, Jackson and seven other Black students were arrested for a peaceful protest at a whites-only library; the Greenville library system was later integrated.
Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice, in 1984 and 1988, championing a 'rainbow coalition' for the rights of Black, poor and working-class people. Twenty years after his 1988 run, Barack Obama – the first Black president – saluted Jackson for making his victory possible. Jackson said he cried because he thought of those who had paid 'a real price' for progress.
In later years, Jackson had progressive supranuclear palsy and was twice hospitalised with Covid. He continued to campaign, asking during the pandemic: 'After 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination, why would anybody be shocked that African Americans are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus?'
