The Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights campaigner and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, has died at the age of 84. His family confirmed his death, describing him as a servant leader for the oppressed and voiceless.
A fixture in the civil rights movement since the 1960s, Jackson was once close to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. He founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and championed the rights of Black, poor and working-class people. In 1988, he ran strongly for the Democratic nomination, becoming the first serious Black contender for the presidency.
Barack Obama, the first Black president, later credited Jackson for paving the way. Jackson said he cried when Obama won in 2008, thinking of those who had fought before. He also campaigned against racial disparities during the Covid pandemic.
Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941. As a student, he led the 'Greenville Eight' protest to integrate the public library. He later attended North Carolina A&T, where he led sit-ins and graduated in sociology.
He had been diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological condition, and was twice hospitalised with Covid in recent years.
