US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies
Feb 18, 2026
Washington DC [US], February 18: US civil rights activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson died peacefully surrounded by his family on Tuesday morning, his Rainbow Push Coalition foundation announced.
Jackson was 84. He was best known for his struggle at the side of Martin Luther King Junior for civil rights for black people in the United States.
Jackson was born as Jesse Louis Burns in Greenville in South Carolina in 1941, later taking the name of his stepfather Charles Jackson. He studied theology in Chicago, where he began working for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under King.
Jackson was with the civil rights leader when he was murdered in Memphis in 1968. During the 1980s, Jackson emerged as one of the best-known black politicians in the United States.
Source: Qatar Tribune
