Rev. Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Giant and Global Voice for Justice, Dies at 84

Family, Civil Rights Community, and World Leaders Pay Tribute.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, the towering civil rights leader, Baptist minister, and two-time U.S. presidential candidate whose “rainbow coalition” vision reshaped American politics and inspired movements around the world, has died at the age of 84.

Jackson passed away peacefully on Tuesday, surrounded by family, according to those close to the longtime activist, who spent decades on the frontlines of the struggle for racial equality, voting rights, and economic justice.

A protégé and ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a young organizer in the civil rights movement, later founding Operation PUSH and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to fight discrimination, expand access to the ballot box, and hold corporate America accountable.Over the course of his career, he helped negotiate the release of hostages abroad, marched with workers and students at home, and used his pulpit and political campaigns to bring the concerns of poor and marginalized communities into the center of U.S. public life.

In statements Tuesday, his family remembered him as a “servant leader” who gave his life to lifting the oppressed, while civil rights veterans, clergy, and political leaders hailed Jackson as a moral force whose words and organizing helped shape generations.Though health challenges in recent years limited his mobility, Jackson continued to speak, preach, and appear at protests, insisting that the fight for justice was larger than any one man and urging younger activists to carry the torch forward.

Funeral arrangements and public memorial plans are expected to be announced in the coming days, as condolences and tributes pour in from across the United States and around the world for a man many regarded as one of the last great lions of the civil rights era.