US civil rights leader Jesse Louis Jackson, seen here delivering the feature address at the Sunday Morning Well on August 1, 2004, has died at the age of 84. Photo: Dean H. Greenaway aka 'The Sportsman'

Reverend Jesse L. Jackson is interviewed by journalists during his visit to the Virgin Islands in 2004. Photo: Facebook

Martin Luther King Jr (second R) stands with Hosea Williams (L), Jesse L. Jackson (second L), and Ralph Abernathy (R) on the balcony of a Memphis hotel on 3 April 1968. Photo: AP/Charles Kelly

Jackson, who fought for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King Jr, died peacefully on Tuesday morning, February 17, 2026, surrounded by his family.

"Our father was a servant leader - not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," the Jackson family said following his passing.

A protege of Martin Luther King Jr, Jackson built a career around working to politically organise and improve the lives of African-Americans, and became a national force during his two White House campaigns. Jackson was present with Martin Luther King Jr when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017 and was hospitalised for observation last November after being diagnosed with a degenerative condition.

Jackson @ the Sunday Morning Well

In 2004, Reverend Jackson travelled to the Virgin Islands and delivered the feature address at the Emancipation Celebration at the Sunday Morning Well on August 1, 2004.

Following his passing, Dean H. Greenaway, aka ‘The Sportsman’, posted photographs of Jackson while in the Virgin Islands.

One of them shows Jackson delivering the feature address at the Sunday Morning Well, with the then Chairman of the Virgin Islands Heritage Committee, Dr Melvin A. Turnbull, in the background.

Another is of journalists interviewing Mr Jackson.

Political career

A long political career followed Jesse Jackson's activism.

He travelled to Syria in 1983 to plead for the release of a captured American pilot, Lt Robert Goodman. His mission was successful, and greatly boosted his national profile.

In 1991, he visited Iraq on the eve of the Gulf War to plead with Saddam Hussein to release Western hostages.

Jackson ran twice for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1984 and 1988. He didn't win, but he did get just under seven million votes at his second attempt.

Deciding against running for president a third time, he became a public supporter of Bill Clinton, who then made Jackson his special envoy for democracy and human rights in Africa in 1997.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 by Clinton, the highest civilian honour in America.