Rev. Jesse Jackson passes away at age 84
- Media Logic Radio
- Feb 17
- 2 min read
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson — a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a two-time U.S. presidential candidate — has died at 84.
Jackson rose to national prominence during the Civil Rights Movement and became the most visible Black activist in America in the decades following King’s 1968 assassination. As a young organizer in Chicago, he was summoned to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis shortly before King was killed. Jackson later said King died in his arms, though some aides disputed elements of that account.
Jackson also sought diplomatic breakthroughs abroad, negotiating with foreign leaders and advocating for human rights internationally.
Born Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson excelled academically and athletically. After beginning college at the University of Illinois, he transferred to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where he became a student leader amid the surge of sit-ins that energized the Civil Rights Movement. He later worked closely with King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, launching Operation Breadbasket in Chicago to push companies to hire Black workers.
Ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968, Jackson built a career that blended ministry, activism and politics. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988, winning millions of votes and expanding Black political participation nationwide.
Jackson died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family. In a statement, his family called him “a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world.”
In his final months, he required around-the-clock care and communicated by holding hands and squeezing in response. His son, Jesse Jackson Jr., said last year that his father’s speeches “belong to the ages now.”
Jackson’s legacy remains intertwined with the movement he helped carry forward after King’s death — a mission rooted in faith, protest and the enduring assertion of human dignity.
