According to CBS News, Jesse Jackson passed away peacefully Tuesday morning surrounded by family. He had been hospitalized in November and was living with progressive supranuclear palsy. In 2017, he revealed he had Parkinson’s disease but said it would not stop his civil rights work. His father also died from Parkinson’s complications.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson rose to prominence in the 1960s as a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH, later known as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, promoting civil rights and economic empowerment.
A Baptist minister and influential activist, Jackson made history with his 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, finishing second in the Democratic race in 1988 and expanding Black political participation nationwide.