The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon who twice ran for president of the United States, died on Tuesday, February 17. He was 84.
Jackson 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.
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. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988, smashing the perception at the time that a Black political candidate couldn’t be a viable presidential candidate.
In his later years, Jackson was an elder statesman in the civil rights movement. And when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 to become the first Black president, Jackson was in the crowd, watching with tears in his eyes.
