United States civil rights leader and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84, his family announced in a statement on Tuesday.
In the statement, the family described him as a lifelong advocate for justice and equality.
“Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the statement read.
It added, “His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you honour his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
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Jackson was raised in the segregated southern United States and became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
An eloquent orator, Jackson emerged as one of the most prominent figures in the struggle for the rights of Black Americans and other marginalised communities.
Over the decades, he remained a leading voice on civil rights issues in the United States, despite facing controversies during his public life.
Jackson twice sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, running campaigns in 1984 and 1988 that attracted significant support.
In 1984, he secured about 3.3 million votes, representing roughly 18 per cent of ballots cast in the Democratic nominating contests, finishing third behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart.
His 1984 campaign suffered a setback after remarks he had privately made about Jewish people and New York became public.
Four years later, in 1988, Jackson mounted a stronger bid, winning 11 state primaries and caucuses and amassing about 6.8 million votes, or 29 per cent of those cast, before finishing second to eventual nominee Michael Dukakis.
At the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Jackson delivered a widely noted address, telling delegates, “America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one colour, one cloth.”
He continued, “Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t you surrender.”
Jackson founded Chicago-based civil rights organisations Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition and later served as special envoy to Africa under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
In 2017, at the age of 76, Jackson disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after experiencing symptoms for three years. His family did not immediately provide further details regarding the cause of his death.
