Jesse Jackson: Everything you need to know about civil rights activist who died at 84

Rev. Jesse Jackson, an anthropologist and the legendary civil rights activist and two-time presidential candidate, passed away on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, aged 84, his family has said in a statement.

His cause of death was not immediately given, but Jackson’s family said he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

"Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," expressed his family.

"We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by," the family leaves a message.

Jackson's illness:

He was hospitalized in November for treatment to regulate his blood pressure, having been under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy, CNN reported at the time.

PSP is “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements,” according to the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

About Jesse Jackson:

A fixture in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics since the 1960s, Jackson was once close to Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

In an interview with the Guardian in May 2020, Jackson said: “I was a trailblazer, I was a pathfinder. I had to deal with doubt and cynicism and fears about a Black person running. There were Black scholars writing papers about why I was wasting my time. Even Blacks said a Black couldn’t win.”

“It was a big moment in history,” Jackson told the Guardian, 12 years later.

Twenty years later, the first Black president, Barack Obama, saluted Jackson for making his victory possible. Obama celebrated in Chicago, also home to Jackson.

Reflecting upon Jackson's role as a civil right activist:

In 1964, Jackson enrolled at the Chicago Theological Seminary, as he continued to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Jackson traveled with his classmates to Selma, Alabama, to join the movement after he watched news footage of “Bloody Sunday," where King led nonviolent civil rights marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, who were then beaten by law enforcement.

Impressed by Jackson’s leadership at Selma, King offered him a position with the civil rights group that he co-founded, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

After a couple of years, Jackson put his seminary studies on hold to focus on SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket, an economic justice program that harnessed the power of Black churches by calling on ministers to put pressure on companies to employ more Black people through negotiations and boycotts. In 1967, Jackson became Operation Breadbasket’s national director and was ordained as a minister a year later.