The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering figure in the fight for civil rights and a fervent advocate for justice and equality, has passed away at the age of 84. The Rainbow PUSH Coalition, his nonprofit organization championing social justice, confirmed that Jackson died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his loved ones.
In an emotional statement shared on Instagram, the organization announced, “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Civil Rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Honorable Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.” His family was by his side as he took his final breath, marking the end of an era for a man who had a profound influence on American society.
Jackson’s health had been in decline since he was hospitalized in Chicago on November 12 due to progressive supranuclear palsy. This condition, also known as Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, is a neurodegenerative disorder that typically surfaces in patients in their mid to late 60s. The disease significantly impairs body movements, walking, and balance, often leading to severe disability within three to five years, as noted by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Serious complications can include pneumonia, choking, and head injuries from falls.
Jackson’s journey began in Greenville, South Carolina, where he was born on October 8, 1941. Growing up under the harsh restrictions of Jim Crow laws, he experienced firsthand the indignities of segregation, from being forced to sit at the back of the bus to using separate water fountains. These early experiences fueled his lifelong commitment to fighting for equality and justice, shaping him into one of the most revered civil rights leaders of the 20th century.
The brain disease often affects body movements, walking and balance, and can come with complications including “pneumonia, choking or head injuries from falls.”
Born in Greenville, S.C., on Oct. 8, 1941, Jackson spent much of his childhood living under Jim Crow segregation laws, ones that forced him to sit in the back of the bus and drink from designated water fountains.
As a young activist, he was among the marchers in Selma, Ala. in 1965, when a voting rights demonstration escalated into vicious police violence against protestors. The brutal day would soon become known as Bloody Sunday.
A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson carried the movement’s torch forward into politics, the pulpit and the streets, founding the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 1971 as a tireless advocate for the poor and marginalized.
Decades later, he stood with the family of George Floyd, a Black Minnesota man who was killed by a white police officer in 2020, which forced a national reckoning over police brutality and racism. Jackson also participated in COVID-19 vaccination drives to battle hesitancy in Black communities.
Until Barack Obama’s election in 2008, Jackson was also the most successful Black candidate for the U.S. presidency. He ran for the office twice during the 1980s, and in 2000 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
In 2017, Jackson revealed he’d been receiving outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease for nearly two years. Amid his most recent hospitalization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition revealed he’d been diagnosed in April 2025 with progressive supranuclear palsy, which oftentimes has similar symptoms to Parkinson’s.
“Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful, and I have been slow to grasp the gravity of it,” Jackson said at the time of his Parkinson’s diagnosis, a disease that, he said, “bested my father.”
It was among a myriad of health setbacks he suffered in recent years. In 2021, he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and just a few months later was admitted to the hospital again after suffering a fall at Howard University.
Still, he continued his work and advocacy up until the end. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention, and while he didn’t speak his presence on the stage was met with fierce applause and a standing ovation. In March 2025, he returned to Selma to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
The reverend is survived by his college sweetheart, Jacqueline Jackson, to whom he’d been married since 1962. Together, they had five kids: Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan Luther, Yusef DuBois and Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson.
In 1999, he welcomed his sixth child, daughter Ashley, through a relationship with former staffer Karin Stanford.
With News Wire Services
