The Rev. Jesse Jackson was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister and an activist icon who twice ran for president.
Born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson experienced Jim Crow segregation firsthand on public buses and at school. It would determine the rest of his life.
His fight for civil rights began in the 1960s, when he helped organize protests and demonstrations across the US and worked closely with civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
His decades-long career as a leading civil rights activist included support for modern national movements, such as the push for voting rights, the fight against racism and a higher minimum wage.
Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a Democrat. He came third in the party’s nomination in 1984 and second in 1988. This was the most successful presidential candidate of any black candidate before Barack Obama.
Jackson announced in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In November 2025, Jackson was treated at a Chicago hospital after complications from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disorder.
Jackson died on February 17.
