Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson Dies
Reverend Jesse Jackson, a prominent civil rights icon and political figure, has died after a long illness. Jackson was a two-time presidential candidate and a key leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. His passing is being mourned across the United States.
- In his 1988 presidential campaign, Jackson won 11 primary contests and secured 6.9 million votes, briefly making him the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. His earlier 1984 bid was the first time an African American candidate had launched a nationwide campaign for the presidency. - A key theme of his political platform was the "Rainbow Coalition," an idea to unite a broad group of marginalized voters, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans, family farmers, the poor, and white progressives. - Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in 1971 to improve economic conditions in Black communities, using boycotts and direct action to pressure corporations into hiring more Black executives and working with Black-owned suppliers. - A protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson worked within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was appointed by King to lead its economic arm, Operation Breadbasket, in Chicago. He was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968. - He had a long history of international diplomacy, successfully negotiating the release of a U.S. Navy pilot from Syria in 1984, hundreds of foreign nationals held in Iraq by Saddam Hussein in 1990, and three U.S. soldiers from Yugoslavia in 1999. - The "long illness" mentioned was a combination of degenerative neurological conditions; he publicly disclosed a Parkinson's disease diagnosis in 2017 and also lived with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). - For his decades of work, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, on August 9, 2000.
