Jesse Jackson, twice a candidate for president, dies at age 84
Activist Jesse Jackson, who twice was a candidate to be president of the United States, has died at age 84, his family confirmed.
Described as a “civil rights icon” by the Daily Mail, he was acknowledged by Al Sharpton, another civil rights activist, as “not simply a civil rights leader; he was a movement unto himself. He carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice.”
His family said, “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world.”
The family statement continued, “‘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 honour his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”
He was born in 1941 and led a lifetime of crusades in the U.S. and around the world, pushing for power for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and jobs to education and health care, the report said.
BREAKING: Civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson passed away on Tuesday morning at age 84, his family said in a statement.
Read more: https://t.co/9jLAAua5g8 pic.twitter.com/0E6rwkhZxd
— ABC News (@ABC) February 17, 2026
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, pioneering civil rights activist and racial ‘pathfinder,’ dies at 84 https://t.co/HOtHgzTo5H pic.twitter.com/1hCQEBJWh8
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 17, 2026
He revealed in 2017 he had Parkinson’s disease.
“He was hospitalized for COVID-19 in August 2021, and again in November after he fell and hit his head while helping Howard University students protest poor living conditions on campus,” the report said.
The report pointed out he also was dealing with progressive supranuclear palsy, which damages parts of the brain and affects a sufferer’s walking, balance, eye movements and swallowing.
He attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship, later transferring to North Carolina A&T.
He was a disciple of Martin Luther King Jr, and twice ran for the White House, unsuccessfully.
He was part of the famed Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches in the 1960s.
He eventually formed Operation PUSH, originally People United to Save Humanity, to demand his vision of social justice and politics.
The Daily Signal said he was a Baptist minister who was raised in the segregated South.
He further worked for Bill Clinton, a Democrat president, as a special envoy to Africa.
One of his presidential campaigns faltered because it became public that he had privately called Jewish people “Hymies.”
He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1968 despite failing to graduate from Chicago Theological Seminary.