Jesse Jackson, the well‑known American civil‑rights activist, died at the age of 84. His family announced the death on Tuesday.
Jackson first gained national attention in the 1960s as a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. After King was assassinated in 1968, Jackson became one of the most influential civil‑rights leaders in the United States. He founded the Rainbow Coalition, a broad alliance of ethnic groups, which helped steer the Democratic Party toward more progressive positions. In the 1980s he ran twice for the Democratic presidential nomination but was not elected.
The cause of death was not disclosed immediately. Jackson had publicly revealed his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2017, and reports say he had been receiving treatment for at least two years beforehand.
