Jesse Louis Jackson, the towering civil rights leader whose moral vision and fiery oratory reshaped the Democratic Party and America, has died, his son said. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the most transformative civil rights leaders in America — to the chagrin of some of King’s aides, who thought he was too brash. ”It is where I get the drive to think I could change the South through the civil rights movement and run for President,” Jackson said. In his later years, Jackson became an elder statesman in the civil rights movement. Jackson announced plans to step down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2023, more than 50 years after he founded the international human and civil rights organization.

Source: CNN February 17, 2026 12:17 UTC