Jesse Jackson: Five key moments in Civil Rights icon’s career
- - Jesse Jackson: Five key moments in Civil Rights icon’s career
Marc Ramirez, USA TODAYFebruary 17, 2026 at 3:21 AM
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Feb. 17 at 84, was a tireless activist, dynamic orator, skilled diplomat and influential politician whose two campaigns for the White House transformed politics and diversified the Democratic Party.
Renowned for his ability to weave unity across borders of race, class, gender and religion, his legacy is a tapestry of efforts to promote civil and human rights, peace, equality and economic and social justice.
Here are five key moments in Jackson’s career.
Jackson's evolution as an activist
As a freshman at the University of Illinois, Jackson was one of eight young Black high school and college students arrested after conducting a sit-in at a Whites-only library in his native Greenville, South Carolina, in the summer of 1960. The protest by the so-called Greenville Eight would help spur the library’s desegregation two months later.
has died. He was 84. Jackson was hospitalized on Nov. 12 following a lengthy battle with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease.See his journey and path to politics in photos.
" style=padding-bottom:56%>The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died. He was 84. Jackson was hospitalized on Nov. 12 following a lengthy battle with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease.See his journey and path to politics in photos.
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died. He was 84. Jackson was hospitalized on Nov. 12 following a lengthy battle with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease.See his journey and path to politics in photos.
">The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died. He was 84. Jackson was hospitalized on Nov. 12 following a lengthy battle with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease.See his journey and path to politics in photos.
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Reverend Jesse Jackson (C) leads demonstrators down State Street to protest the death of Laquan McDonald and the alleged cover-up that followed on Dec. 6, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year-old McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, hitting him with 16 bullets. Van Dyke was charged with murder more than a year after the shooting after a judge ordered the release to the public of a video which showed McDonald backing away from Van Dyke while being shot.
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Reverend Jesse Jackson (C) leads demonstrators down State Street to protest the death of Laquan McDonald and the alleged cover-up that followed on Dec. 6, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year-old McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, hitting him with 16 bullets. Van Dyke was charged with murder more than a year after the shooting after a judge ordered the release to the public of a video which showed McDonald backing away from Van Dyke while being shot.
">Reverend Jesse Jackson (C) leads demonstrators down State Street to protest the death of Laquan McDonald and the alleged cover-up that followed on Dec. 6, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed 17-year-old McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, hitting him with 16 bullets. Van Dyke was charged with murder more than a year after the shooting after a judge ordered the release to the public of a video which showed McDonald backing away from Van Dyke while being shot.
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1 / 43Jesse Jackson dies at 84. See his from preacher to civil rights leader
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases, and shamed corporations for their lack of corporate diversity and failure to support voting rights, has died. He was 84. Jackson was hospitalized on Nov. 12 following a lengthy battle with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition similar to Parkinson's disease.See his journey and path to politics in photos.
After transferring to North Carolina A&T State College, Jackson became a student leader in efforts to desegregate establishments in Greensboro before beginning studies at the University of Chicago’s theological seminary.
Bloody Sunday would alter Jackson’s life and career. The March 1965 incident in Selma, Alabama, in which peaceful marchers were attacked by state troopers with tear gas and billy clubs, ultimately led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It also spurred Jackson to leave Chicago to join the efforts in Selma and to become involved in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The following year, King would make Jackson director of the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, the conference’s economic arm, fighting for greater Black representation in the business workforce.
Jackson's activism moves to the national level
In 1971, Jackson left the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and launched Operation PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity (“Save” was later changed to “Serve”), dedicated to Black self-help, youth development and economic opportunity.
Using persuasion, boycotts and prayer vigils, the group successfully won concessions from White-owned corporations and businesses to employ more diverse workforces.
The Rev. Jackson, center, president of Operation PUSH, holds a press conference with the Rev. James Lawson, left, and Dr. Alvin Poussaint following their meeting with James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tenn., on Aug. 10, 1978.
In 1984, as Jackson made his foray into politics, he founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based social justice organization which promoted equal rights for Blacks, women and gays. Among its key initiatives was advocating for minority groups affected by President Ronald Reagan’s moves to cut domestic spending, especially efforts targeted at inner cities.
The two organizations would merge in 1996, becoming the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and continuing to fight for civil rights and economic and academic opportunity in the U.S. and worldwide. Jackson’s groups helped many causes gain mainstream acceptance such as national health care, peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians and embrace of the LGBTQ community.
Jackson stepped down as leader of the coalition in 2023.
A pair of transformative presidential runs
A year after leading a voter registration drive that helped Harold Washington win election as Chicago’s first Black mayor, Jackson sought the Democratic presidential nomination – only the second Black candidate, after Shirley Chisholm in 1972, to vie for the presidency at the national level. While he finished third in primary voting, he became the first Black politician to win any major-party state primary race and his grassroots campaign helped reenergize the Democratic Party by inspiring hundreds of thousands of people to register to vote.
Pop star Michael Jackson sits with Al Sharpton, left, and Jesse Jackson during a public viewing and funeral for legendary singer James Brown in Augusta, Ga. on Dec. 30, 2006.
In 1988, Jackson again ran for president, doubling his share of 1984’s primary vote with a progressive, unifying platform that served as an antidote to what many saw as racially divisive policies under Reagan.
According to journalist David Masciotra, Jackson’s campaigns sparked the Democratic Party’s diversification and a new wave of Black leadership across the country, including Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who in 1990 became the first Black governor of any state since Reconstruction; David Dinkins, who was elected as New York City’s first Black mayor in 1989; and Norm Rice, who was elected Seattle’s first Black mayor the same year.
A global diplomat
In the late 1970s, Jackson began traveling abroad to help resolve global disputes and bring attention to world causes, decrying South African apartheid and advocating for Palestinian statehood.
In 1984, Jackson negotiated the release of Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who had been captured by Syria. The same year he secured the release of Cuban prisoners in Cuba.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Jackson as special envoy to Africa, where he would meet with leaders such as Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South Africa, Kenya’s Daniel T. Arap Moi and Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba.
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton (R) joins hands with Rev. Jesse Jackson in Atlanta, Sept. 9, 1992 during the National Baptist Convention.
Jackson brokered the release of U.S. soldiers held in Kosovo in 1999; then helped arrange release of four British-employed journalists being held by Liberia the following year.
Health issues began to slow Jackson's work
In August 2000, Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
But even as Jackson continued to push for justice, equality, voting rights and an end to poverty, growing health issues began to take their toll.
In 2017, he issued a letter announcing that he had been diagnosed four years earlier with Parkinson’s disease, which he said had also affected his father.
“I find it increasingly difficult to perform routine tasks, and getting around is more of a challenge,” he wrote. “For a while, I resisted interrupting my work to visit a doctor. But as my daily physical struggles intensified, I could no longer ignore the symptoms.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. speaks, as his family stands near him, from the balcony outside room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, where he was when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee. The city commemorated Dr. King's legacy before his death on the balcony outside his hotel room on April 4, 1968.
Jackson was treated in November 2021 after falling and hitting his head at Howard University.
In April 2025, doctors Jackson’s initial diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and chronic neurodegenerative disorder known as PSP whose early symptoms are often mistaken for Parkinson’s, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The experience of being arrested as a young college student, he had said, provided a certain adrenaline.
“We finally had the courage to fight back standing up,” he told the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY network. As the Civil Rights movement spread to the northern U.S., “we became soldiers of a domestic war.”
In more recent years, as attacks on civil rights began anew, he maintained optimism.
“Even though we face a chilly wind of real meanness, as a body of American people, White and Black and brown, we are going forward.”
Former president-elect George Bush(L) shakes hands with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Nov. 30 1988 after a luncheon meeting at the White House in Washington.
He said he wanted to be remembered as someone who cared deeply for people and racial reconciliation.
“I think people who learned to survive apart must now learn to live together,” he said. “… I want to be remembered as a soldier in that struggle to make America better and the world more secure.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jesse Jackson dies at 84. Five key moments in his Civil Rights career
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