The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a charismatic preacher who became the leading voice of Black American aspirations in the years after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was the first African American to gain significant traction as a presidential candidate, died Tuesday. He was 84.
A statement from his family did not provide cause of death. Rev. Jackson had initially been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015. Years later, he learned he had progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement.
