US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84, leaving legacy of political firsts

SCMP · 2026-02-17
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84, leaving legacy of political firsts

Charismatic US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South ⁠who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jnr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our father was a