<\/p>\nListen to this article<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/span>1 min<\/span><\/p>\n<\/button>info<\/title><path class=\"icon-main-color\" d=\"M12 0a12 12 0 1 0 0 24 12 12 0 0 0 0-24Zm-.226 3.225a2.039 2.039 0 0 1 2.155 1.924v.193a1.998 1.998 0 0 1-2.155 2.149 2.029 2.029 0 0 1-2.146-2.15 2.039 2.039 0 0 1 1.955-2.122h.193l-.002.006Zm3.227 15.525a.75.75 0 0 1-.752.75H9.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.75h.748V12h-.75a.75.75 0 0 1-.75-.75v-1.5a.75.75 0 0 1 .752-.751h3a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.752v6.75h.75a.75.75 0 0 1 .75.749L15 18.75Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>United States civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson has died \u201cpeacefully\u201d at aged 84, according to his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cHis unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shake a global movement for freedom and dignity,\u201d his family said in a statement.<\/p>\n<section class=\"more-on\">\n<h2 class=\"more-on__heading\">Recommended Stories<!-- --> <\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">list of 3 items<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cOur father was a \u2060servant leader \u2013 not \u2060only to our family, \u2060but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the \u200coverlooked around the world,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2060A close associate of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr (MLK), the Baptist \u2060minister twice ran for \u2060the Democratic presidential nomination. He spent decades advocating for the rights of Black Americans and other minorities, dating back to the tumultuous 1960s civil rights movement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He first entered the public eye as MLK\u2019s mentee and was with MLK when he was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a 2008 interview with Al Jazeera, Jackson said MLK\u2019s slaying \u201ctraumatised\u201d him, and blamed the US government for sowing fears among the public against his mentor \u201cwithout a foundation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIn spite of those odds, he lives now through his dreams in the hearts of millions of people,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4319312\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4319312\" style=\"width:770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4319312\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/afp_699444cbb261-1771324619.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C512&quality=80\" alt=\"(FILES) Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks to the crowd at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Dedication ceremony in Washington, DC on October 16, 2011. The long awaited dedication of the US national memorial to slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King had been rescheduled from the 48th anniversary date of King's "I Have A Dream" speech due to Hurricane Irene.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4319312\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks to the crowd at the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Dedication ceremony in Washington, DC on October 16, 2011 [AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"hold-your-head-high\">\u2018Hold your head high\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson was raised in the segregated US South and later took the name of his stepfather.<\/p>\n<p>He studied sociology at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina before joining the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights marches in 1965, where he formed a relationship with MLK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">After MLK\u2019s death, Jackson continued his legacy by leading the Chicago-based organisation Operation PUSH, which was dedicated to improving economic, social and political conditions for Black people across the US.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to form the National Rainbow Coalition, which emerged out of the first of his two unsuccessful bids for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984. The group sought equal rights and political representation for a broader array of marginalised groups, including LGBTQ+ people, and merged with Operation PUSH.<\/p>\n<p>About the same time, he apologised for anti-Semitic comments he made to a Washington Post journalist, and publicly cut ties with controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Four years later, Jackson\u2019s speech at the Democratic National Convention became among his most famous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me. And it wasn\u2019t born in you, and you can make it,\u201d he said. \u201cWherever you are tonight, you can make it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don\u2019t you surrender,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_889525\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-889525\" style=\"width:770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-889525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/67c0dc5214f94228b7b590b4f1f6d306_8.jpeg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\" alt=\"Deputy President of the African National Congress Nelson Mandela, right, meets with the Rev. Jesse Jackson when the two met during a reception for Mandela on Sunday, April 15, 1990 in a London hotel.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-889525\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">South Africa\u2019s Nelson Mandela, right, meets with Jackson, centre, on April 15, 1990 in a London hotel [File: Gill Allen\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the 1990s, Jackson increasingly turned his attention to foreign policy, serving as a presidential special envoy for Africa for Bill Clinton and becoming a prominent voice for ending apartheid in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>His travels to free American prisoners brought him to Syria, Iraq and Serbia.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, Jackson cried in the crowd as former president Barack Obama celebrated his first presidential win, calling his election \u201cmind-boggling, mind-blowing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur children walk into a very different America tomorrow,\u201d he told Al Jazeera at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease in 2017 and faced severe health challenges toward the end of his life.<\/p>\n<p>Still, he remained a staunch advocate for various progressive causes, including pushing for COVID-19 vaccines for Black Americans, who lagged behind their white counterparts in vaccine uptake, campaigning for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and championing the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to demonstrators in Minneapolis, Minnesota, ahead of the murder conviction of the police officer who killed George Floyd, he said: \u201cEven if we win, it\u2019s relief, not victory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThey\u2019re still killing our people,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cStop the violence, save the children. Keep hope alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a01 min info United States civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson has died \u201cpeacefully\u201d at aged 84, according to his family. \u201cHis unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shake a global movement for freedom and dignity,\u201d his family said in a statement. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}