The Reverend Jesse Jackson, an icon of the Civil Rights movement, has died at 84

"Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society."

"And when he declared, "I am Somebody," in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. "I may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody," Jackson intoned. It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America's best-known civil rights activist since King."

"Santita Jackson confirmed that her father died at home in Chicago, surrounded by 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 said in a statement posted online. "We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.""

Jesse Jackson died at age 84 at home in Chicago, surrounded by family. He was a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr., met King at the Lorraine Motel shortly before King's assassination, and positioned himself thereafter as King's successor. He led decades of crusades for the poor and underrepresented on voting rights, job opportunities, education, and health care. He won diplomatic victories with world leaders and, through the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, pressed corporate executives to open boardrooms and advance racial equity. He popularized the poem 'I am Somebody' as a message of dignity. Family described him as a servant leader to the oppressed and overlooked.

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