Overview
- His family, via the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said he died peacefully on February 17 and urged people to carry on his fight for justice and equality.
- Public memorial events are planned in Chicago, with additional commemorations to be announced by Rainbow/PUSH.
- Jackson rose alongside Martin Luther King Jr., founded Operation PUSH/Rainbow/PUSH, and became a defining voice for racial and economic justice.
- He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, mobilizing a multiracial coalition that reshaped party debate.
- He disclosed Parkinson’s disease in 2017 and was later reported to have progressive supranuclear palsy; his family has not announced a specific cause of death.