US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies aged 84

US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. Jackson died peacefully on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family, they say in a statemen.” 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 say

Jackson fought for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960s and was twice a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988

He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017 and was hospitalised for observation last November after being diagnosed with a degenerative condition.

Jesse Jackson was a prominent civil rights campaigner who ran twice for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 1984 and 1988.

Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson became involved in politics at an early age.

He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a leader in Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He was present with King when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

He launched two social justice and activism organisations: Operation PUSH in 1971, and the National Rainbow Coalition a dozen years later.

Jackson remained an activist into later life, pursuing civil rights for disenfranchised groups both in the United States and abroad.

Jesse Jackson’s cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but he was hospitalised in November, and doctors said he’d been diagnosed with a degenerative condition called progressive supranuclear palsy.

In 2017, Jackson announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder which affects the brain, nervous system, and muscle control.

Jackson called it a “physical challenge” but continued his civil rights advocacy.

His father, Noah Lewis Robinson Sr, also had Parkinson’s and died of the disease in 1997 at the age of 88.

The Jackson family’s statement says the 84-year-old “died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family”.

“His unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shake a global movement for freedom and dignity,” the statement goes on.