by Tessy Abade
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in modern American history, has died at the age of 84. His family confirmed his passing on Tuesday. In recent years, Jackson had been battling cancer and living with Parkinson’s disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), conditions that led to multiple hospitalizations.
Jesse Louis Burns was born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson entered the world under complicated circumstances. His mother, Helen Burns, was a high school teenager at the time of his birth. His biological father, Noah Robinson, was a married former professional boxer who lived next door. A year later, Helen married Charles Jackson, a janitor at the local post office, who adopted Jesse and gave him his surname. Despite this new beginning, Jackson endured ridicule as a child. He was taunted by neighbours and classmates because of the circumstances surrounding his birth, an experience that left a lasting emotional mark. Still, he excelled academically and athletically, becoming an honour student, class president, and multi-sport athlete in high school.
After graduation, Jackson received both a minor league baseball offers and a Big Ten football scholarship. He initially attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before transferring to North Carolina A&T College in Greensboro. There, he became the starting quarterback and student body president. More significantly, he became actively involved in civil rights demonstrations, aligning himself with a growing national movement.
In 1962, he married fellow student Jacqueline Lavinia Brown. By 1964, the couple had welcomed their first child, and Jackson graduated with a degree in sociology. He later attended Chicago Theological Seminary, where he organized student support for the civil rights movement where he worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. Jackson participated in the historic Selma-to-Montgomery marches alongside King and other leaders, leaving a strong impression. Though he left seminary just three courses short of earning his master’s degree, he was ordained a minister in 1968 and later received an honorary Master of Divinity in 2000.
King appointed Jackson to leadership roles within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), including heading Operation Breadbasket, the organization’s economic arm. After King’s assassination and leadership changes within the SCLC, Jackson resigned in 1971 following internal conflicts. That same year, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), focusing on economic empowerment for Black Americans. In 1996, PUSH merged with the National Rainbow Coalition to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Jackson’s national influence expanded through politics. In 1984, he launched his first campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, winning five primaries and more than 18% of the vote. Though he finished third behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart, his campaign marked a historic moment as one of the first viable presidential bids by a Black American. In 1988, he ran again, winning 11 primaries and caucuses and finishing second to Michael Dukakis, earning over seven million votes.
Though he never secured the presidency, Jackson later served as a “shadow senator” for Washington, D.C., advocating for statehood. Internationally, he undertook diplomatic missions that resulted in the release of American prisoners in Syria, Cuba, Iraq, and during the Kosovo conflict. He also served as a special envoy to Kenya under Bill Clinton.
Over decades of activism, Jackson received more than 35 honorary degrees, the NAACP’s President’s Award, the Spingarn Medal, and in 2000, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Surviving him are his wife Jacqueline and five children: Santita Jackson, former U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., U.S. Congressman Jonathan Jackson, Yusef Jackson and Jacqueline L. Jackson.His legacy remains deeply embedded in the struggle for civil rights, political representation, and economic justice in the United States.
