Jesse Jackson was with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. From a base in Chicago, Jackson built a significant career in civil rights advocacy and politics.

After a number of years living with neuromuscular disease, Jesse Jackson’s death on February 17, 2026, was confirmed by his family. He was 84.

Following Dr. King’s assassination, Jackson used his oratorical power to become a force on issues of race, economics, and presidential politics. With the call to “Keep Hope Alive,” Jackson made the case for his “Rainbow Coalition” at the Democratic conventions in 1984 and 1988.

Jackson’s oratorical brilliance was often recognized alongside his self-promoting personality and the hardships of his youth in South Carolina. At the historically Black college, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, he met and married his wife and lifelong champion, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, known as Jackie.

Jackson participated in the civil rights movement and later joined Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His personal ambition was sometimes a source of conflict with those around Dr. King, including disagreements over his description of events following the assassination.

Despite these differences, Jackson formed the Rainbow Coalition as his political base and ran for president in 1984. He delivered a dramatic speech at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, which nominated Vice President Walter Mondale. In 1988, Jackson ran again, this time with greater support and strength. He delivered a powerful speech at the convention in Atlanta urging the party to “Keep Hope Alive,” but ultimately lost the nomination to the governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis.

After eight years of the presidency of Bill Clinton and eight years of the presidency of George W. Bush, Barack Obama—also from Chicago—was elected president, achieving the historic milestone of becoming the first Black man to reach the Oval Office.

Following Obama’s election, Jesse Jackson continued to campaign on his issues into his seventies, when ill health restricted his mobility but not his advocacy or convictions. At the time of his death, he knew that even the goals not fully realized had helped shape the national conversation around economic dignity and political participation.