The Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate who carried the torch of the civil rights movement for decades passed away Tuesday morning
February 17, 2026
The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., one of the most powerful and enduring voices in American civil rights history, died Tuesday morning surrounded by his family. He was 84.
His death at his home in Chicago was confirmed by his daughter, Santita Jackson. His family said he died peacefully early Tuesday and did not specify a cause of death. Deseret News
Jackson had been battling progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative condition, for over a decade before his death. In November 2025, he was hospitalized after battling several infections consistent with the progression of his PSP diagnosis. TODAY.com
A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson’s moral vision and fiery oratory reshaped the Democratic Party and America. CNN
Born Jesse Burns to a 16-year-old single mother in Greenville, South Carolina in 1941, the future reverend was a child of the Jim Crow South. He dropped out of the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1966 — three credits short of graduating — after getting his start in the civil rights movement working for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was ordained as a reverend in 1968, and the school later awarded Jackson his master’s degree in 2000, counting his life experiences in place of those three missing credits. WLBT
Jackson was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968. He did not let up after King’s death, taking his vision for Black liberation even further by founding People United to Save Humanity, or PUSH, in 1971. NBC News
His Rainbow Coalition — a bold alliance of Black, White, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and LGBTQ people — helped pave the way for a more progressive Democratic Party. “Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow – red, yellow, brown, Black and White – and we’re all precious in God’s sight,” Jackson once said. CNN
Jackson ran for president twice, in 1984 and 1988, becoming the first African American to mount a serious major-party presidential campaign. He successfully fought to change the awarding of delegates during the Democratic primaries from a winner-take-all system that benefited frontrunners to a proportional system that gave other candidates a fighting chance. CNN
Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum following news of his passing. Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton said “our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices,” adding, “Reverend Jackson stood wherever dignity was under attack, from apartheid abroad to injustice at home. His voice echoed in boardrooms and in jail cells.” NBC News
Former President Joe Biden said Jackson had inspired generations of Americans, calling him “a man of God and of the people. Determined and tenacious. Unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our Nation.” NBC News
President Donald Trump also paid tribute, saying Jackson “was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts'” and extending his “deepest sympathies and condolences” to the Jackson family. Deseret News
The Jackson family issued a statement celebrating the icon: “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world. 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.” TMZ
He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and six children, including Illinois Congressman Jonathan Jackson and former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. WLBT
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
FXBGNEWS.com will continue to update this story as more details become available.
