US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84
Jackson ran historic presidential campaigns, championed racial justice for decades
ISTANBUL
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, a longtime campaigner who ran a 1988 Democratic presidential race, has died, his family said Tuesday. He was 84.
“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family said in a statement.
“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, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by,” it added.
A cause of death was not disclosed but Jackson died peacefully surrounded by loved ones, said his family. He was hospitalized in November and lived for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy, according to Rainbow PUSH Coalition., the group he founded
Public observances will be held in Chicago and additional celebration-of-life events will be announced by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
A prominent figure of the civil rights movement and Democratic politics since the 1960s, Jackson was once a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1984, Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the second Black candidate to mount a nationwide campaign after Shirley Chisholm more than a decade earlier.
After that presidential run, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition to advance voting rights and social programs, later merging it in the mid-1990s into the multiracial Rainbow PUSH Coalition focused on educational and economic equality.
In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom for decades of work expanding opportunities for people of color.
US President Donald Trump offered condolences to Jackson's family, and said he was “a force of nature,” praising his personality and long record of activism. He added that it was his "pleasure" to support Jackson over the years, including providing office space for his Rainbow Coalition.
