{"id":473794,"date":"2026-02-17T12:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473794\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:20:07","slug":"breaking-civil-rights-leader-jesse-jackson-dead-at-84-national-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473794\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson dead at 84 | National News"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader’s assassination, has died. He was 84.<\/p>\n

Jackson died Tuesday surrounded by family, according to a statement posted online from the family.<\/p>\n

As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis<\/a> shortly before King was killed and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King’s successor.<\/p>\n

Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow\/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives<\/a> to make America a more open and equitable society.<\/p>\n

And when he declared, \u201cI am Somebody,\u201d in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. \u201cI may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody,\u201d Jackson intoned.<\/p>\n

It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America\u2019s best-known civil rights activist since King.<\/p>\n

Despite profound health challenges<\/a> in his final years including a rare brain disorder that affected his ability to move and speak, Jackson continued protesting against racial injustice into the era of Black Lives Matter. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and at a City Council meeting to show support for a resolution backing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we win,\u201d he told marchers in Minneapolis before the officer whose knee kept George Floyd<\/a> from breathing was convicted of murder, \u201cit\u2019s relief, not victory. They\u2019re still killing our people. Stop the violence, save the children. Keep hope alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calls to action, delivered in a memorable voice<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s voice, infused with the stirring cadences and powerful insistence of the Black church, demanded attention. On the campaign trail and elsewhere, he used rhyming and slogans such as: \u201cHope not dope\u201d and \u201cIf my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it then I can achieve it,\u2033 to deliver his messages.<\/p>\n

Jackson had his share of critics, both within and outside of the Black community. Some considered him a grandstander, too eager to seek out the spotlight. Looking back on his life and legacy, Jackson told The Associated Press in 2011 that he felt blessed to be able to continue the service of other leaders before him and to lay a foundation for those to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cA part of our life\u2019s work was to tear down walls and build bridges, and in a half century of work, we\u2019ve basically torn down walls,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cSometimes when you tear down walls, you\u2019re scarred by falling debris, but your mission is to open up holes so others behind you can run through.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his final months, as he received 24-hour care, he lost his ability to speak, communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get very emotional knowing that these speeches belong to the ages now,\u201d his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., told the AP in October.<\/p>\n

Former Associated Press writer Karen Hawkins, who left The Associated Press in 2012, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,17984,793,451,3075,10817,219639,3,111,452,453,795],"class_list":["post-473794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-civil-rights","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-human-rights","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-jesse-jackson-dies","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}