Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Activist, Whose Moral Vision, Fiery Oratory Reshaped America, Dies at 84

• Tinubu mourns, remembers deceased as servant-leader, activist

Deji Elumoye, Emmanuel Addeh and Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, the towering civil rights leader whose moral vision and fiery oratory reshaped the Democratic Party and America, has died, a Rainbow Push Coalition spokesperson confirmed to CNN yesterday. He was 84.

Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., had been hospitalised in recent months and was under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said.

Jackson was what one pundit called “an American original.” He was born to an unwed teenage mom in Greenville, South Carolina, during the Jim Crow era but rose to become a civil rights icon and a groundbreaking politician who mounted two electrifying runs for the presidency in the 1980s.

Jackson’s dual bids for the Democratic presidential nomination inspired Black America and stunned political observers who marveled at his ability to draw White voters. He was a Black crossover figure long before Barack Obama hit the national stage, CNN reported.

Jackson first rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the most transformative civil rights leaders in America — to the chagrin of some of King’s aides, who thought he was too brash.

But his Rainbow Coalition, a bold alliance of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans 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.

One of Jackson’s signature phrases was “Keep hope alive.” He repeated it so often that some began to parody it, but it never seemed to lose meaning for him. He was a force for social justice over three eras: the Jim Crow period, the civil rights era and the post-civil rights era that culminated with the election of Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Through his eloquence and singular drive, Jackson didn’t just keep hope alive for himself. His dream of a vibrant, multiracial America still inspires millions of Americans today.

Jackson’s vision remade the Democratic Party. He  made a concerted effort to challenge the Democratic Party’s prioritisation of White, moderate, middle-class voters, says David Masciotra, author of “I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters.”

“A Democratic party that now represents a multicultural America and has someone like Kamala Harris as the (former) Vice President and Obama as the former President began in many ways with those Jackson campaigns,” Masciotra says.

Obama may have never made it to the White House without Jackson’s pioneering presidential runs. Jackson successfully fought to change the awarding of delegates during the Democratic primaries from a winner-take-all system that benefitted frontrunners to a proportional system that helped other candidates even if they didn’t win a state.

Those changes helped Obama mount a come-from-behind victory over frontrunner Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries, Masciotra says. Jackson was once asked if it hurt that he didn’t become the nation’s first Black president.

“No, it doesn’t,” he told a Guardian columnist, “because I was a trailblazer, I was a pathfinder. I had to deal with doubt and cynicism and fears about a Black person running. There were Black scholars writing papers about why I was wasting my time. Even Blacks said a Black couldn’t win.”

Jackson smashed the perception that a Black person couldn’t be a viable presidential candidate. Some pundits predicted he would be outclassed by his more experienced political opponents during the presidential debates. They grudgingly recognized his charisma, but many never gave him credit for his analytical ability and political savvy. “It turned out he not only held his own; he often won those debates,” Masciotra says.

Political observers shouldn’t have been surprised. Jackson was one of the most gifted communicators in American history. Even as a child, he had a preternatural facility with words and metaphors. Like King, he injected the rhyming, cadences and poetic imagery of Black church preaching into American political life.

“Jesse was an unusual kind of fella, even when he was just learning to talk,” Noah Robinson, Jackson’s father, told The New York Times in 1984. “He would say, ‘I’m going to lead people through the rivers of the water.’’’

Jackson’s signature line, “I Am Somebody,” which he often chanted during speeches, was aimed as much at himself as it was to his audience. Marshall Frady, who wrote “Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson,” said Jackson was prodigiously gifted but was plagued by “chasmic insecurities despite all he’s done.”

Some of those insecurities sprang from his childhood. Jackson was born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina — a double outcast because of his race and the circumstances of his birth. He was born in the Jim Crow South to Helen Burns, then an unmarried 16-year-old, and her married-next-door neighbor, Noah Robinson. Burns married a year later, and her husband, Charles Jackson, adopted her son.

Biographers invariably describe Jackson as feeling lonely and different as a child. He was teased by classmates for being “a nobody who had no daddy.” Frady described Jackson as an “aggrieved and brooding little boy.”

But Jackson told a New York Times reporter that he had a “father surplus.” He said his biological and adoptive fathers were friends, and that he inherited his strong ego and “sense of dignity” from his biological father.

”It is where I get the drive to think I could change the South through the civil rights movement and run for President,” Jackson said.

Jackson was able to build the kind of stable family life that was denied to him as a kid. In 1962 he married Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, who was in many ways as dynamic and strong-willed as he was. They had five children and stayed together through the wild swings of fortune that Jackson endured during his six decades in public life.

Jackson once said that “both tears and sweat are salty,” but while tears will get you sympathy, “sweat will get you change.” He took his childhood tears and channeled them into a relentless activism that only flagged when he announced in 2017 that he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Jackson’s other frailties were evident long before that diagnosis. He was accused of exaggerating his actions following King’s assassination and making anti-Semitic remarks. He also fathered a daughter after an affair with a former aide. There were few national leaders whose highs and lows played out on the national stage like Jackson, the CNN report added.

Yet he continued to make change while making headlines. In 1984 he negotiated the release of 48 Cuban and Cuban-American prisoners held in Cuba and of Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, an African-American pilot held hostage in Syria.

In 1999 he negotiated the release of three US soldiers who had been held in what was then Yugoslavia for more than a month. A year later, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

In his later years, Jackson became an elder statesman in the civil rights movement. He was a bridge between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the contemporary era, when many young White Americans saw nothing odd about a Black man in the White House.

When Obama delivered his election-night victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park in 2008 to a massive crowd of cheering onlookers, the cameras caught Jackson looking on, tears in his eyes.

“I cried because I thought about those who made it possible who were not there,” Jackson later explained. “People who paid a real price: Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer… those in the movement in the South.”

Jackson suffered additional health problems in recent years. He and his wife were hospitalised in August 2021 after testing positive for Covid-19. And in November 2021 he was hospitalised after falling and hitting his head during a protest at Howard University in Washington.

He was arrested in 2021 while urging Congress to protect voting rights, and led a march for criminal justice reform that same year. Jackson announced plans to step down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2023, more than 50 years after he founded the international human and civil rights organization.

His legacy was celebrated the following year when he was honoured on stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which would see Kamala Harris become the first Black woman to lead a major-party ticket.

Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and their five children, Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, and Jacqueline. He is also survived by a sixth child, Ashley.

Meanwhile, a presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Gbenga Hashim, has mourned the passing of renowned American civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, describing him as one of America’s finest moral exports and a global symbol of justice, unity and democratic struggle.

In a tribute issued on Tuesday, Hashim said the death of  Jackson at the age of 84 marked the end of an era in the global pursuit of equality, human dignity and social justice, noting that his influence extended far beyond the borders of the United States.

Hashim, who served as General Secretary of the Youth Solidarity for South Africa in Nigeria in 1986, described Jackson as a moral voice molded in the crucible of the struggle for democracy and inclusion.

He added that the late civil rights icon stood firmly in the tradition of prophetic activism and carried forward the unfinished work of the Civil Rights Movement.

He recalled that Rev. Jackson, a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped transform grief into organised resistance and hope into measurable political progress, particularly in the post-King era.

According to him, Jackson’s leadership of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition mobilised millions and consistently amplified the voices of the marginalized, the poor and the excluded, insisting they must have a seat at the table of power.

Hashim, who was also an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1989, further highlighted Jackson’s presidential campaigns in the 1980s, describing them as historic efforts that expanded the imagination of what was politically possible for minorities in America and helped reshape the nation’s democratic landscape.

He noted that the late civil rights icon believed deeply in the power of the ballot, peaceful protest and moral conviction, stressing that democracy must work for everyone and not only the privileged few.

“His message was always clear, inclusion is not charity, it is justice,” Hashim stated.

Hashim, who has a long history in human rights and pro-democracy activism, said Jackson’s legacy resonates deeply with many African advocates of justice and liberation.

Beyond America, Hashim described Jackson as a statesman of conscience who engaged in diplomatic interventions, advocated for peace and lent his voice to oppressed people across the world.

He added that Jackson’s life carries enduring lessons for Nigeria and Africa, particularly on the need for leadership anchored on courage, compassion and moral clarity.

“At a time when the world confronts division and distrust, his legacy challenges us to rebuild bridges, defend democratic institutions, and protect the dignity of every human being,” he said.

Hashim concluded by commiserating with the United States over the loss, describing Jackson as a tireless advocate who refused to surrender to cynicism and whose courage and compassion will continue to inspire generations.

“A towering voice for justice has fallen silent, but the echo of his unwavering fight for equality will inspire generations to stand boldly for what is right,” he added.

Also, President Bola Tinubu has mourned the renowned civil rights icon and Baptist preacher, Jackson.

In a tribute issued on Tuesday on the demise of the civil rights icon, the President described late Jackson as servant-leader, activist, defender of human rights and strong voice for universal ideals of justice.

Tinubu, in the 12-paragraph message to Jackson stated:”I  join the rest of the world and the people of the United States of America to mourn the passing of civil rights icon and renowned Baptist preacher, Reverend Jesse Jackson, who passed away this morning at the age of 84.

“Reverend Jackson was a servant-leader who captured the global imagination as a young activist, alongside civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., fighting for the dignity of black people, the oppressed, and the voiceless in the United States and across the world.

“Although he built a career working as a preacher and active political organiser, Reverend Jackson became a national and global icon, demanding improved social and economic conditions for African-Americans.

“Along with other compatriots, Reverend Jackson carried on the unfinished business of Martin Luther King Jnr in the noble fight for racial justice in the United States.

“As a student in the United States in the 1970s, I lived in Chicago, the same city where Reverend Jackson fought the most important battles against injustice and all forms of discrimination. I witnessed firsthand how, as a faithful servant of God and humanity, he pointed the arc of American society to the great promise of the American dream.

“As a community organiser and activist, Rev. Jackson was an influential figure in American politics and global affairs. If Barack Obama became the first Black American president, it was because Reverend Jackson and his fellow activists did not relent in their march for justice, reminding America of its values and creed.

“When Barack Obama broke the glass ceiling as the first Black President in America, it was Reverend Jackson who first inflicted the cracks on the ceiling in 1984 and again in 1988 when he offered himself as a Democratic Party presidential contender.

“Reverend Jackson was a great friend of Nigeria and Africa. He was a moral voice and a formidable resistance to apartheid in South Africa. He played a leading role in the campaign for the release from prison of Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders. He won critical support for sanctions against the then apartheid government.

“During the dark era of military dictatorship in Nigeria, Reverend Jackson stood in defence of human rights and the restoration of democratic rule. He was the Special Envoy appointed by President Bill Clinton to Nigeria and Africa in 1997 and 1999.

“In Nigeria and across Africa, Reverend Jackson promoted civil liberties and advanced the course of democracy and good governance. He also helped link African leaders with the Congressional Black Caucus to promote Africa’s interests in Washington.

“Reverend Jackson lived a remarkable life as a strong voice for the universal ideals of justice and human progress. Even as age and illness mellowed him, his voice still resonated, urging us never to stop fighting for what is right and never to lose faith in humanity. He wanted us to “keep hope alive”.