Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist and two-time US presidential candidate, has died. He was 84. Jackson, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. had been hospitalised in recent months and was under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy. He died last morning, his son said.
According to a statement from his nonprofit organisation, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson’s unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shape a global movement for freedom and dignity.
It added that Jackson elevated the voices of the voiceless, from his Presidential campaigns in the 1980s to mobilising millions to register to vote. Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, rose to become a civil rights icon and a groundbreaking politician who mounted two electrifying runs for the presidency in the 1980s under the Democratic Party.
Jackson first rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination in 1968. Tributes flowed in for Mr Jackson, including former US President Barack Obama, who said that Jackson’s two historic runs for president had laid the foundation for his own campaign for the US presidency.
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