Civil Rights Activists, Jesse Jackson, Peacefully Passes Away.
- Chris Woods
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Chris Woods
The Advocate
Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist, politician and Baptist minister, died Feb. 17, 2026.
Born Jesse Louis Burns on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, to single mother Helen Burns, he later had good relationships with both his biological father, Noah Louis Robinson, and his stepfather, Charles Henry Jackson. A high school honor student and class president at racially segregated Sterling High School, he attended the University of Illinois in 1959 on a football scholarship for a year, then transferred to historically Black North Carolina A&T College in Greensboro. He graduated with a degree in sociology in 1964 and later attended Chicago Theological Seminary.
In Greensboro, he became active in the civil rights movement, joining the Congress of Racial Equality and participating in sit-ins and demonstrations. In 1965 in Chicago, he organized groups to drive to Selma, Alabama, to participate in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by James Bevel, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. In 1966, King and Bevel chose Jackson to lead the Chicago Southern Christian Leadership Conference, known as Operation Breadbasket, a program to find jobs for Black workers. He was promoted to national director in 1967, having used boycotts to pressure white businesses to open up hiring and to buy from Black businesses.
After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the inheritors of the legacy in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Breadbasket, and in 1969 mentored a young Al Sharpton. Jackson became a proponent of racial reconciliation, seeing many issues as class problems related to poverty. After Jackson held the successful Black Expo in Chicago in October 1971 for Black businesses, he had a falling-out with SCLC leader Ralph Abernathy.
Jackson left with most of his Chicago staff and started People United to Save Humanity (Operation PUSH) in December 1971. In 1984, he formed the National Rainbow Coalition, a social justice group, and ran for U.S. president, losing to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. He ran again unsuccessfully in 1988. In the 1980s, the two groups used boycotts to promote more jobs and business opportunities for Black Americans and to run programs for housing, social services and voter registration. In 1996, they merged to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and launched the Wall Street Project to improve opportunities in the financial services industry.
In his 1984 presidential platform, he was the first major candidate to include LGBT rights. “Gays and lesbians … make up the American quilt” and “The rainbow includes lesbians and gays. No American citizen ought to be denied equal protection from the law.” He participated in gay and lesbian marches in 1987 and 1993 and supported same-sex marriage in 2004 in Massachusetts and nationally in 2012.
Internationally, he helped secure the return of hostages and POWs in Syria, Cuba, Kosovo and Iraq, and started dialogue with leaders or communities in Cuba, the Soviet Union (Russia), Kenya, Northern Ireland and Venezuela. He also supported Nelson Mandela after Mandela’s release from prison in South Africa.
Jackson visited the Portland, Oregon, area several times, including a 1987 visit to Portland State University, a 1988 visit to Portland’s Columbia Villa (known as The Ville) and a 1992 visit following the Los Angeles riots. He said that Oregon held “a special piece of my heart,” including Redmond and Oregon State University.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, and six children, including political commentator Santita Jackson, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Rep. Jonathan Luther Jackson.
Other media:
I will not be silent and I will be heard: Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Penn Center 1964-1967, by J. Tracy Power
In The Archives: Rev. Jesse Jackson visits Oregon in the 1980’s & 90’s, KATU News
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