U.S. Black civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at 84.
According to Reuters and other outlets, the family announced the Rev. Jackson's death in a statement on the 17th (local time). The family said, "Our father was a leader who served not only our family but also the oppressed, the marginalized, and the voiceless around the world."
The Rev. Jackson disclosed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and was battling the illness. The deceased had led efforts to improve the rights of Black Americans and marginalized communities since the civil rights movement of the 1960s led by his mentor, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Based in Chicago, he founded the Black civil rights group "Operation PUSH" in 1971. In 1984, he also created the civil rights group "National Rainbow Coalition," which encompassed women's rights and LGBTQ rights. The two organizations merged in 1996 into the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (RPC), and it became an organization representing marginalized groups in the United States.
The Rev. Jackson led the organization for more than 50 years and carried out human rights activism until he stepped down as RPC president in 2023. The Rainbow Coalition is credited with laying the groundwork that supported the presidential election victory of Barack Obama, the United States' first Black president.
He played a decisive role in securing the release of Americans and foreign nationals detained in overseas conflict zones including Syria, Cuba, Iraq and Serbia. He also ran in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1984 and 1988.
The Rev. Jackson continued to speak out for Black civil rights in his later years. He strongly condemned police brutality after the death of George Floyd in 2020, which sparked the "Black Lives Matter" protests.
The Rev. Jackson visited Korea in 1986 during the Chun Doo-hwan government, toured the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and met former President the late Kim Dae-jung, who was under house arrest. He supported the former president, calling him "the Nelson Mandela of Korea." Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, is regarded as a global human rights activist. The Rev. Jackson made a second visit to Korea in 2018 and engaged broadly with politics, religious circles and others.