The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon who twice ran for president of the United States, died on Tuesday, February 17. He was 84.
Jackson rose to nationwide prominence in the Sixties as an in depth aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson turned probably the most transformative civil rights leaders in America.
His Rainbow Coalition, a daring alliance of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and LGBTQ folks, helped pave the best way for a extra progressive Democratic Party. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988, smashing the notion on the time {that a} Black political candidate could not be a viable presidential candidate.
In his later years, Jackson was an elder statesman in the civil rights motion. And when Barack Obama received the presidency in 2008 to change into the primary Black president, Jackson was in the gang, watching with tears in his eyes.