American civil rights figure who inspired a generation

A witness to Martin Luther King's murder, Jesse Jackson took up his mentor's torch and ran with it, the ordained minister helping to change his country's society and politics

- ARIANA BAIO

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights leader and former politician who rose to prominence as a protege of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, has died.

The 84-year-old’s family announced his passing yesterday in a statement, describing him as a “servant leader ... to the oppressed, the voiceless and the overlooked around the world”. No cause of death has been given.

Jackson, who had been living with Parkinson’s disease since 2017, was admitted to the hospital last November with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disorder he had been managing “for more than a decade” but received a diagnosis for in April.

His tireless dedication to racial equality spanned more than six decades and helped shape the modern civil rights movement.

Jackson profoundly shaped American politics, inspiring a generation of minority leaders and moving the Democratic Party’s platform toward social and economic progressivism as it entered the 21st century.

He was born Jesse Louis Burns on 8 October 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, to Helen Burns, reportedly 16, and Noah Louis Robinson, a 33-year-old married neighbour. Jackson would not learn the identity of his biological father until he was seven years old.

Later in his childhood, Jackson took the last name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson, whom his mother married when he was an infant. Jackson considered both men to be his fathers.

Growing up in poverty in the Jim Crow era, facing societal judgement for being born out of wedlock and personal challenges with his biological father, Jackson learnt to channel his fears into excellence.