Former president Barack Obama said Jackson "laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land"
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NEED TO KNOW
- Former president Barack Obama payed tribute to civil rights icon Jesse Jackson following his death
- In his joint statement with wife Michelle on X, Obama praised the reverend for “registering millions of voters” and “advocating for freedom and democracy around the world”
- Obama went on to say that Jackson “laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land”
Former president Barack Obama took to social media to pay tribute to civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson following the announcement of his death.
Obama shared a statement on X on Tuesday, Feb. 17, writing, "Michelle and I are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant, the Reverend Jesse Jackson."
"For more than 60 years, Reverend Jackson helped lead some of the most significant movements for change in human history," he continued. "From organizing boycotts and sit-ins, to registering millions of voters, to advocating for freedom and democracy around the world, he was relentless in his belief that we are all children of God, deserving of dignity and respect."
"Reverend Jackson also created opportunity for generations of African Americans and inspired countless more, including us," he said. "Michelle got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons' kitchen table when she was a teenager. And his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land."
Obama concluded, "We will always be grateful for Jesse's lifetime of service, and the friendship our families share. We stood on his shoulders. We send our deepest condolences to the Jackson family and everyone in Chicago and beyond who knew and loved him."
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On Tuesday, Feb. 17, Jackson, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient by former president Bill Clinton in 2000, died at the age of 84.
His family announced in a statement on Instagram, sharing that he died "peacefully" and "surrounded by his family."
"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 shared in the 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.”
Jackson ran twice for the U.S. presidency, in 1984 and 1988, and played a key role in the release of three U.S. soldiers from Yugoslavia in May 1999 after personally appealing to President Slobodan Milosevic.
Following Obama’s first presidential win in 2008, Jackson was seen crying after learning of the news.
He later clarified the reasoning behind his tears in an interview with NPR’s “Tell Me More,” saying, “Well, on the one hand, I saw President Barack Obama standing there looking so majestic. And I knew that people in the villages of Kenya and Haiti, and mansions and palaces in Europe and China, were all watching this young African-American male assume the leadership to take our nation out of a pit to a higher place.”
"And then, I thought of who was not there,'' Jackson continued. "The martyrs and murdered whose blood made last night possible. I could not help think that this was their night."
He added, “If I had one wish: if Medgar [Evers], or if Dr. King could have just been there for a second in time, that would have made my heart rejoice. And so it was kind of duo-fold – his ascension into leadership and the price that was paid to get him there."
Jackson, who famously marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s and who was with King on the day of his April 4, 1969, assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., had faced several medical setbacks in his recent years.
In November 2021, he was hospitalized after falling and hitting his head during an event at Howard University.
That obstacle came two months after Jackson and his wife were hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.
In 2017, Jackson was initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that causes tremors, difficulty balancing, walking and coordinating movement, according to the National Institute on Aging.
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However, in April 2024, it was confirmed that he actually had Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP,) which as CNN noted at the time, can have similar symptoms to Parkinson’s disease.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, whom he married in 1962, their five children and his grandchildren. He also shares a daughter with a former staffer with whom he had an affair.
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