Online Reporter
WASHINGTON. — The Reverend Jesse Jackson, a towering figure in the American civil rights movement who evolved from a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr into a two-time presidential candidate and a global mediator, has died at the age of 84.
His family announced his passing on yesterday, praising “his unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love.”
Jackson was a key lieutenant in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s and was present in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968.
He later founded Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition, organizations dedicated to social justice and economic empowerment that merged in 1996.
Jackson’s historic presidential bids in 1984 and 1988 shattered racial barriers and laid the groundwork for Barack Obama’s historic victory two decades later.
His stirring address to the 1988 Democratic National Convention, in which he urged the party to find “common ground” and declared “it takes two wings to fly,” remains a landmark of American political oratory.
Beyond politics, Jackson acted as an international envoy, negotiating the release of prisoners in Syria and Iraq and advocating for the end of apartheid in South Africa.
His later years were marked by a battle with Parkinson’s disease and moments of personal controversy, but he remained a voice for the “desperate and the disinherited” until the end.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement.
“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 Connor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
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 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.”
Twenty years after his second run for president, the first Black president, Barack Obama, saluted Jackson for making his victory possible. Obama celebrated in Chicago, also home to Jackson.
“It was a big moment in history,” Jackson said 12 years later. In an interview with NPR, Jackson said: “I cried because I thought about those who made it possible who were not there … People who paid a real price: Ralph Abernathy, Dr King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, those who fought like hell [at the Democratic national convention] in Atlantic City in 64, those in the movement in the south.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jackson campaigned against disparities in care and outcomes, asking: “After 400 years of slavery, segregation and discrimination, why would anybody be shocked that African Americans are dying disproportionately from the coronavirus?”
He also said all past presidents had failed to “end the virus of white superiority and fix the multifaceted issues confronting African Americans”.
“My leadership skills came from the athletic arena,” Jackson told the Washington Post in 1984. “In many ways, they were developed from playing quarterback. Assessing defences; motivating your own team. When the game starts, you use what you’ve got — and don’t cry about what you don’t have. You run to your strength. You also practice to win.” – Agencies
