Jesse Jackson dies at 84, civil rights icon who marched with Martin Luther King Jr

Rev. Jesse Jackson, the veteran civil rights leader who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr and later mounted two historic bids for the US presidency, has died aged 84.

A towering figure in American political life for more than five decades, Jackson helped reshape the Democratic Party, expand Black political power and carry forward the civil rights movement into the modern era.

“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless and the overlooked around the world,” his family said in a statement. “His unwavering belief in justice, equality and love uplifted millions.”

No cause of death was immediately given.

Jackson had lived with progressive supranuclear palsy for more than a decade after initially being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was also twice hospitalised with Covid in recent years.

From the segregated south to the national stage

Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson came of age in the deeply segregated American south. As a student activist, he participated in sit-ins and protests challenging racial discrimination, including a 1960 library protest that led to integration after a federal lawsuit.

He later joined King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and led Operation Breadbasket, an initiative focused on economic justice and expanding employment opportunities for Black Americans.

Jackson was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on 4 April 1968 when King was assassinated, a moment that shaped his life and political path.

Historic presidential campaigns

In 1984, Jackson became only the second Black candidate to launch a nationwide campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Four years later, in 1988, he mounted an even stronger campaign, winning several primaries and becoming a serious contender.

Though he did not secure the nomination, his campaigns broadened voter participation and altered the Democratic Party’s coalition politics.

Former president Barack Obama later acknowledged Jackson’s role in helping make his own historic victory possible.

A lasting political force

Jackson founded the Rainbow Coalition and later the Rainbow Push Coalition, organisations aimed at advancing voting rights, economic equality and social justice.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States.

For decades, Jackson remained one of the most recognisable and outspoken voices in American public life, continuing to speak out on racial justice, inequality and democracy well into his later years.

His death marks the passing of one of the last major figures directly linked to the frontline leadership of the 1960s civil rights movement.