Overview
- The family said the 84-year-old died peacefully in Chicago, surrounded by relatives, and did not disclose a cause of death.
- Rainbow/PUSH said public memorials will be held in Chicago, with additional commemorations to be announced.
- A close associate of Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson helped lead 1960s civil-rights campaigns and founded Operation PUSH, later the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
- He twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, mobilizing a multiracial coalition and pushing party debates on racial and economic justice.
- Jackson had long-term neurological illnesses, publicly disclosing Parkinson’s in 2017 and later reports of progressive supranuclear palsy, with a recent hospital stay.