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Tributes pour in after US civil rights icon Jesse Jackson dies at 84

World leaders share memories of Jackson, a leader of the US civil rights movement who passed away on Tuesday.

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Reverend Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies at age 84

By Elizabeth Melimopoulos and Reuters
Published On 17 Feb 2026

He was a Baptist minister who rose from the segregated South to become a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr, not to mention a prominent civil rights leader in his own right.

And on Tuesday, Jesse Jackson passed away in the United States at age 84. His family confirmed his death in a statement, saying Jackson “died peacefully”, though it did not specify a cause.

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Jackson remained politically active throughout his life, including through his leadership in some of the country’s top civil rights groups.

In the late 1960s, he helmed Operation Breadbasket, which addressed economic inequality among Black people. Later, he founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to help engage national audiences on issues of social justice.

Jackson also ran twice for the Democratic presidential nomination, once in 1984 and again in 1988.

Here’s how leaders in the US and around the world are reacting to his death.

Donald Trump, US president

Trump issued a Truth Social post on Tuesday, saying that he “knew him well, long before becoming President”. He also shared multiple photos of himself and Jackson together at social events.

“He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’ He was very gregarious – Someone who truly loved people!” the president said.

In the post, Trump also used his acquaintance with Jackson to defend himself against allegations of racism, after he shared a video depicting Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, as an ape earlier this month.

Barack Obama

Obama released a statement explaining that he is “deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant”.

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He said that he and his wife, Michelle, were directly inspired by Jackson, writing: “Michelle got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager.

“And in his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”

Joe Biden, former US president

Biden remembered the civil rights activist as “determined and tenacious”.

“I’ve seen how Reverend Jackson has helped lead our Nation forward through tumult and triumph. He’s done it with optimism, and a relentless insistence on what is right and just,” he shared on a post in X.

“Whether through impassioned words on the campaign trail, or moments of quiet courage, Reverend Jackson influenced generations of Americans, and countless elected leaders, including Presidents.”

Kamala Harris, former US vice president

Harris, who ran as the Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential election, shared her own tribute on social media.

“His presidential runs in 1984 and 1988 electrified millions of Americans and showed them what could be possible,” she wrote.

“From Washington, DC to the Bay Area, from the Mississippi Delta to Appalachia, from South Africa to the South Side of Chicago, Reverend Jackson gave a voice to people who were removed from power and politics.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton, former US president and former secretary of state

In a social media statement, the Clintons said they became friends with Jackson after meeting him in 1977, during events marking the 20th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School.

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That effort was seen as a pivotal moment in the US civil rights movement.

Nine Black students, later known as the Little Rock Nine, had enrolled at the previously all-white high school during the country’s desegregation, but their arrival at the school faced such heated opposition that then-President Dwight Eisenhower deployed the Arkansas National Guard.

The Clintons said that after meeting Jackson at the anniversary event, they continued to maintain a relationship with him for nearly 50 years.

They remembered him as someone who “championed human dignity and helped create opportunities for countless people to live better lives”.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South African president

Ramaphosa expressed his condolences and described Jackson as a “global moral authority” who stood firm in the fight for justice and equality.

“Rev Jesse Jackson’s irrepressible campaigns against apartheid and his support for the liberation struggle was a towering contribution to the global anti-apartheid cause,” Ramaphosa wrote.

“He has fought a good fight and run the race which his Baptist ministry inspired him to run. He made the world a better place but he has also influenced us to maintain his good fight in places where injustice and inequality persist.”

David Lammy, UK deputy prime minister

Lammy, a Labour Party politician, currently serves as deputy prime minister, lord chancellor, and the secretary of state for justice in the United Kingdom.

He is the first Black man to hold these roles, and in Tuesday’s remembrances, he cited Jackson as a source of support.

Lammy began his post with a reference to the wave of protests and violence that erupted in 2011 after the death of a mixed-race man in north London. Lammy was a member of parliament at the time, representing the Tottenham area, where the killing took place.

“Jesse Jackson was one of the first people to call after the riots of 2011,” Lammy wrote. “It was a privilege to share such precious time with him in Chicago and London over the years.”

“May his legacy live on.”

Reverend Al Sharpton, US civil rights and social justice activist

Sharpton also paid tribute to Jackson on X. Their history together stretches back to the 1960s, when a 12-year-old Sharpton would meet Jackson for the first time.

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He would later serve as a youth coordinator for Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket, and the two would continue to collaborate over the course of their careers as civil rights leaders.

“The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson was not simply a civil rights leader; he was a movement unto himself. He carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice. One of the greatest honors of my life was learning at his side,” Sharpton wrote.

“He reminded me that faith without action is just noise. He taught me that protest must have purpose, that faith must have feet, and that justice is not seasonal, it is daily work.”

Diane Abbott, the first Black woman to be a UK member of parliament

On social media, Abbott praised Jackson for the support he gave when she was first elected to the UK’s Parliament.

“He was very smart, warm and hugely charismatic. A direct connection to the great era of civil rights,” Abbott wrote on X.

Separately, in an interview with The Guardian, Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said that Jackson’s legacy was his uncompromising commitment to addressing racism.

She contrasted his fearless approach to the UK’s current leadership.

“Labour party and Keir Starmer don’t talk about racial equality at all,” she said.

Hakeem Jeffries, top Democrat and House Minority Leader

Jeffries, the House of Representatives minority leader for the Democratic Party, called Jackson “a legendary voice for the voiceless, powerful civil rights champion and trailblazer extraordinaire”.

“For decades, while laboring in the vineyards of the community, he inspired us to keep hope alive in the struggle for liberty and justice for all,” he said.

JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois

Pritzker, a Democrat, called Jackson a “giant of the civil rights movement”.

Illinois, Pritzker’s state, had served as a base of operations for Jackson for decades, and it is where the civil rights leader died on Tuesday. Pritzker acknowledged his contribution to Illinois – and the US as a whole – in a social media post.

“He broke down barriers, inspired generations, and kept hope alive,” Pritzker wrote. “Our state, nation, and world are better due to his years of service.”

He ordered flags to fly half-staff across Illinois in honour of Jackson.

Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr

King posted a photo of Jackson with her late father, Martin Luther King Jr. The two men were both icons of the US civil rights movement.

“Both now ancestors,” she wrote on social media.

Martin Luther King Jr and Jackson worked together as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and it was with King’s backing that Jackson went on to lead programmes like Operation Breadbasket.

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Jackson was also present at Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in 1968.

In a separate post, Bernice paid tribute to those deep family ties: “My family shares a long and meaningful history with him, rooted in a shared commitment to justice and love. As we grieve, we give thanks for a life that pushed hope into weary places.”

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple

Cook shared a post on X paying tribute to Jackson and recalling one of his quotes:

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.”

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