Reverend Jesse Jackson, one of the most influential civil rights leaders in US history, has died peacefully at the age of 84, his family announced Tuesday.
Jackson rose to national prominence during the 1960s, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and helping build support for the civil rights movement. His family remembered him as a “servant leader” who dedicated his life to defending the oppressed and fighting for equality around the world.
Although no cause of death was given, Jackson had revealed in 2017 that he was living with Parkinson’s disease and had faced other health challenges in recent years.
Over more than six decades, Jackson became known as a powerful speaker, political activist, and international mediator. He made history in the 1980s as the most prominent Black candidate to run for US president before Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
He was present at many key moments in America’s struggle for racial justice, from King’s final days in Memphis to standing with George Floyd’s family decades later.
Born in segregated South Carolina in 1941, Jackson overcame hardship to become a major national figure. He later founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organisation dedicated to social justice and political activism.
Jackson is survived by his wife and six children, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the fight for human rights.
SOURCE: TRT WORLD
