American pastor Jesse Jackson, a strong defender of the rights of African Americans and a close collaborator of Martin Luther King Jr., died at the age of 84, his family announced in a statement. He also served as an international mediator in various conflicts.

First modification: 02/17/2026 - 12:35

This Tuesday, February 17, the death of Jesse Jackson, one of the most prominent figures in the fight for civil rights in the United States, was confirmed. Martin Luther King's collaborator expanded the presence of African Americans on the American political scene thanks to two failed presidential campaigns that paved the way for the election of the first black president of the United States.

The 84-year-old black pastor died "peacefully" after a long battle with Parkinson's disease, his family announced on Instagram.

"His unwavering commitment to justice, equality and human rights helped fuel a global movement for freedom and dignity," the pastor's family said. "A tireless agent of change, he gave a voice to those who did not have one (...) leaving an indelible mark on history," they added.

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Born in the United States, when the country was still marked by segregation, Reverend Jackson participated in some of the most significant episodes of the fight for racial equality in the United States.

He was in Memphis with Martin Luther King in 1968 when the civil rights giant was assassinated. He stood silently, tearfully, among the crowd celebrating Barack Obama's victory in 2008. He was with George Floyd's family in 2021, after a historic verdict found white police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of the murder of the African-American man.

"My followers are made up of the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the ignored, the despised," the Baptist pastor declared at the 1984 Democratic convention.

A controversial endorsement of Michael Jackson

Rev. Jackson became known in the 1960s working under President Martin Luther King for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that fought for civil rights in a spirit of nonviolence, before launching his own movements, Operation Push and the National Rainbow Coalition.

His career was also rocked by controversies, such as in 1984 when he used an anti-Semitic term to refer to New York or when he unconditionally supported his friend Michael Jackson during his trial for child sexual abuse in 2005.

It was with his two presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 that Jesse Jackson gained notoriety, expanding the Democratic political platform to include the struggles of African Americans.

In 1988, he made a deep impression with a speech on "common ground," urging Americans to unite. "Left, right (...), it takes two wings to fly."

By attacking Ronald Reagan's record, Jesse Jackson denounced the inequalities of a system called "Robin Hood in reverse" that favored the richest and abandoned the poor.

At the Selma march in 1965

He himself came from far back. Jesse Louis Burns was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of a teenage mother and a former professional boxer.

His mother remarried and Jesse took his stepfather's last name, Charles Jackson.

His childhood was that of a black child in the segregated South. "I didn't have a silver spoon in my mouth, but a shovel in my hands," he said.

An excellent student at his segregated high school, he earned a scholarship thanks to his qualities as an American football player and was studying at university at the time when the civil rights movement was taking off in the United States.

Jesse Jackson was not yet 20 years old when he participated in his first sit-in and was among those who, in 1965, marched between Selma and Montgomery, in the Deep South, to defend access to voting for African Americans.

President Clinton's envoy to Africa

The pastor established himself as a mediator and special envoy in several important international conflicts. A fervent activist in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, in the 1990s he was President Bill Clinton's envoy to Africa, traveling to Nigeria and several other countries.

He also went to Syria in 1983 to successfully negotiate the release of a captive US Navy pilot, and then to Belgrade in 1999, where after a meeting with Slobodan Milosevic, he helped secure the release of three American prisoners of war.

He went to Iraq in 1990, shortly before the Gulf War, to ask Saddam Hussein to release dozens of American hostages.

However, in 2005 he caused a stir when he appeared near the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

In 2017, Jesse Jackson announced that he had Parkinson's and began limiting his public appearances. However, he made sure to be with George Floyd's family in Minneapolis in April 2021 for the verdict. He said the verdict brought him "relief" but added that "the fight for equality is a long battle in this country."

With AFP. Article adapted from its original in French.

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