Name: Jesse Jackson dies at age 84 | Special Report
Uploaded: 2026-02-18T23:01:10.000Z
Duration: 5 min 20 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Transition words & phrases

We are coming on the air because the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a groundbreaking civil rights leader who became a two time presidential candidate, died overnight.

He was 84 years old and had been battling a long term illness.

An official statement says Jackson died surrounded by his family.

Ed o' Keefe joins us now with a look at Jackson's life, his impact on the civil rights movement.

For decades, Jackson was a powerful and sometimes polarizing voice for change emerging from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to become a national political figure and champion for marginalized communities across the country.

The preacher, civil rights activist and presidential candidate was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1941.

In his 20s, Jesse Jackson gained national attention as an aide to Martin Luther King Jr.

And a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

A shot cracked out from across the street dropping him to the floor.

He was in Memphis on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated.

King's murder sparked tension between Jackson and other civil rights leaders as they struggled over who would lead their movement.

Ultimately, Jackson launched his own organizations that later became the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, still advocating today for black economic and political empowerment.

We shall fight this institutional racism wherever we see it.

He also became an international hostage negotiator.

In 1984, he helped win the release of an American pilot from Syria.

Later, he'd broker freedom for Americans held in Cuba, Iraq and Kosovo to the White House.

His activism and diplomacy buoyed Jackson's first campaign for president in 1984.

Our leaders are talking too little to too many leaders in this world.

Jackson ended up placing a stronger than expected third in the Democratic primary in 1988.

His second campaign focused on increasing government spending and U.S. support for the third world.

America will get better and better after campaign politics.

Jackson was a talk show host and was an early supporter but occasional critic of Barack Obama's presidential bid.

Famously photographed in Chicago's Grant park on election night 2008.

Initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, Jackson revealed in 2025 he'd been battling progressive supranuclear palsy, a long term degenerative brain condition.

But his public appearances continued more as A supporter of a new generation of activists in the filibuster, fighting for voting rights, fair housing and police reform, echoing the same message he spent years preaching.

In his statement this morning, Jackson's family wrote, quote, our father was a servant leader, not only to our family, but

to the oppressed, the voiceless and the overlooked around the world.

His unwavering belief in justice, equality and love uplifted millions.

And we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.

The family says all public events celebrating Jackson's life will be held in his home city of Chicago.

Details, Vladimir, not yet been released.

You know, Ed, I recall as a young teenager watching Reverend Jackson speaking at the 1984 and 1988 Democratic National Conventions.

And what I was struck by then, as I am now, is how he stressed that offering hope to what he called those who had been disenfranchised, he wanted what he called voter inclusion.

Millions of people who were poor, who were black and brown, who were disenfranchised, who were the working class to be included in the political process.

He didn't believe that democracy could survive if those millions of people were not part of that process.

The the line for that 1984 speech that sticks out.

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.

It was a barrier breaking campaign that opened up so many opportunities for so many others, most obviously President Obama, but

Bernie Sanders wouldn't have been able to run the way he did for president back in the day were it not for some of the things Jesse Jackson had brought up.

There'll be a lot of examination of his life and legacy in the coming days.

Yep, he offered hope over resentment and by doing so, he tried to heal a nation and help it fulfill its democratic promise.

Ed, as always, my friend, thank you very much.

Once again, the Civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84.

And his words at the 1988 Democratic convention still ring true.

Hold your head high, stick your chest out.

It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes.

We'll have much more in the life of Jesse Jackson on CBS Morning starting at 7am for now, our coverage continues on our streaming channel, CBS News 24.

7 and your local news on this CBS station This has been a CBS News Special Report.