US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84, leaving legacy of political firsts

Charismatic US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South ⁠who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jnr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday.“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.Jackson, an inspirational orator and long-time Chicagoan, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017.His death comes at a time when the Donald Trump administration has targeted US institutions, from museums to monuments to national parks, to remove what the president calls “anti-American” ideology, leading to the dismantling of slavery exhibits, the restoration of Confederate statues and other moves that civil rights advocates say could reverse decades of social progress.Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jnr (right) and his aide, Jesse Jackson, are seen in Chicago on August 19, 1966. Photo: APJackson had a three-pronged career of civil rights, liberal missions and political activism, and his two White House bids in the 1980s helped lay the groundwork for the election of America’s first black president two decades later.A dynamic black orator and a successful mediator in international disputes, Jackson was present for many consequential moments in the long battle for racial justice in the United States.