The Rev Jesse Jackson, a towering figure in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics for over five decades, has died at the age of 84. He made a historic run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, championing the rights of Black, poor and working-class people with his ‘rainbow coalition’.
In a statement, the Jackson family described him as a servant leader who fought for the oppressed and overlooked. Jackson had been suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) for more than a decade, and was twice hospitalised with Covid in recent years.
Jackson was a close associate of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and later credited Barack Obama’s election as president as a vindication of his own trailblazing campaigns. He told the Guardian in 2020: “I was a trailblazer, I was a pathfinder. I had to deal with doubt and cynicism and fears about a Black person running.”
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, Jackson experienced segregation firsthand. In 1960, he was part of the ‘Greenville Eight’, a group of Black students who staged a sit-in at the whites-only public library, leading to its integration. He later transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, where he became student body president and earned a sociology degree, while continuing his activism in sit-ins.
Jackson attributed his leadership skills to his time as a quarterback in American football, saying he learned to assess defences and motivate his team. His death marks the end of an era for the civil rights movement, but his legacy of fighting for justice and equality endures.
