Key Takeaways

• Civil rights leader and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson died at 84.
• His family described him as a “servant leader” who uplifted the oppressed and voiceless.
• He founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and ran for president twice, leaving a lasting political legacy.

Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at 84, his family confirmed in a statement on Tuesday (Feb. 17) morning.

According to a post shared on Instagram, the civil rights icon and Baptist minister passed away “peacefully” while “surrounded by his family.” The unfortunate news came months after Jesse was hospitalized last November following a long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a neuromuscular condition similar to Parkinson’s disease.

"Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in the statement. “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 honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

Jesse is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, whom he married in 1962, along with their five children — Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, and Jacqueline — and grandchildren. The Greenville, South Carolina native also welcomed another daughter, Ashley Jackson, in 1999.

Tributes pour in following Jesse Jackson’s death

Among the first to publicly honor Jesse was his granddaughter Donetella Jackson, who shared throwback photos of the two together. “This feels so surreal, my heart aches. Thankful to have known you in this lifetime,” she penned on X. “Grateful that I can still see your face when I look in the mirror.”

Bernice King also posted a photo of Jesse alongside her father, Martin Luther King Jr. “Both now ancestors…,” she wrote in one post, later describing the late reverend and two-time presidential candidate as a “gifted negotiator and a courageous bridge-builder.”

Al Sharpton, who worked closely with Jesse during the civil rights era, shared a lengthy tribute of his own. “Today, I lost the man who first called me into purpose when I was just 12 years old. And our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices,” he began. “One of the greatest honors of my life was learning at his side.” Continue scrolling for more reactions to Jesse’s passing.

REVOLT extends its deepest condolences to Jesse Jackson’s family and loved ones.