“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” his family said in a statement.
“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. 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 cause of death for the renowned civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, has not been disclosed.
His passing comes after he was hospitalized in Chicago last November with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare degenerative brain disease. Jackson had initially been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but doctors confirmed the PSP diagnosis last April. At the time, his family asked for prayers and privacy.
On Nov. 16, relatives pushed back against inaccurate reports that he had been placed on life support following a sharp drop in blood pressure. They said he remained in stable condition and was breathing without mechanical assistance.
“In fact, today he called for 2,000 churches to prepare 2,000 baskets of food to prevent malnutrition during the holiday season,” his son, Yusef Jackson, said in a statement.
Jackson, a pioneering civil rights activist, was among the first major U.S. leaders to advocate for reparations for descendants of enslaved people. He mounted Democratic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 and received numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 from Bill Clinton.
In recent years, Jackson faced multiple health challenges. In 2021, he underwent gallbladder surgery and was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19. He was also treated after a fall in which he struck his head during a visit to Howard University.
It remains unclear when Jackson was first diagnosed with PSP, a rare condition that can impair walking, balance, speech, and swallowing.