The Latest: The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's death prompts vows to 'keep hope alive'

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,” intoned America’s best-known civil rights activist since King.

Santita Jackson confirmed that her father died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family.

The Latest:

Jackson understood economic justice and civil rights are inseparable, Detroit mayor says

In 1971, Jackson formed Operation PUSH, originally named People United to Save Humanity. The organization based on Chicago’s South Side declared a sweeping mission, from diversifying workforces to registering voters nationwide. Using lawsuits and threats of boycotts, Jackson pressured executives of top corporations to spend millions and publicly commit to hiring more women and people of color.

“His tireless push for supplier diversity and equity in the auto industry ensured that Black-owned businesses and minority entrepreneurs had a real seat at the table in one of America’s most powerful industries,” Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield’s statement said. “Detroit felt that work directly, in our businesses, in our communities, and in the opportunities created for generations of families who called this city home.”

Voto Latino praises Jackson for ensuring all voices are represented

Jackson, with his lifelong vision of a more equitable nation, “embodied what it means to be a true public servant,” says a statement from the grassroots organization, which works to educate, register and empower young Latinos.

Voto Latino counted on Jackson as an ally who shared its commitment to ensuring all voices — “particularly those often ignored, marginalized, or unheard — are represented in the democratic process. At a time where our voting rights are once again under attack, we are called to carry forward his legacy and ‘Keep Hope Alive.’"

Obamas credit Jackson for their success while mourning his death

Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, expressed deep sadness over the death of someone they regard as a “true giant.”

Barack Obama said Jackson inspired countless numbers of people through his work organizing boycotts and sit-ins, registering people to vote and advocating for freedom and democracy around the world. Among those he inspired were the Obamas themselves, the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history.

“Michelle got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager,” the former president said. “And in his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.”

“Michelle and I will always be grateful for Jesse’s lifetime of service, and the friendship our families share. We stood on his shoulders,” he said. “We send our deepest condolences to the Jackson family and everyone in Chicago and beyond who knew and loved him.”

Retired Rep. Bobby Rush credits Jackson with saving his life

Sharing condolences with the Jackson family, the Chicago congressman and former Black Panther said “the Reverend taught me so many things through the enormity of his leadership, his passion, and his endless sacrifices for “the least of these.”

“He literally saved my life on the stage of Operation Breadbasket — later to become Operation PUSH — on Saturday, December 6, 1969,” Rush recalled in a statement. “A warrant had been issued for my arrest after the FBI assassinated Fred Hampton. I turned myself in that day, and Reverend Jackson said they’d better return me in the same condition I was in on that stage. If it were not for Reverend Jackson, Renault Robinson, and others, I would have been dead.”

“Since then, Reverend Jackson has been a constant presence in both my public and private life,” Rush said. “He taught everybody that we are SOMEBODY, and his spirit will endure forever.”

Jackson shed tears of joy at Obama’s victory

Jackson did better running for president than any Black politician had before Barack Obama, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in 1988, four years after his first failed attempt. The efforts left supporters chanting another Jackson slogan, “Keep hope alive.”

“I was able to run for the presidency twice and redefine what was possible; it raised the lid for women and other people of color,” Jackson once told the AP. “Part of my job was to sow seeds of the possibilities.”

And when Jackson joined the jubilant crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park to greet Obama on election night, he had tears streaming down his face.

“I wish for a moment that Dr. King or (slain civil rights leader) Medgar Evers ... could’ve just been there for 30 seconds to see the fruits of their labor,” he told the AP years later. “I became overwhelmed. It was the joy and the journey.”

Jackson family ‘shared him with the world,’ and got the world in return

“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 Tuesday. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.”

Jackson’s constant campaigns often left his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, the college sweetheart he married in 1963, taking the lead in raising their five children: Santita Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson Jr., and two future members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Luther Jackson and Jesse L. Jackson Jr., who resigned in 2012 but is seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

Jackson lost his ability to speak towards the end, communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.

“I get very emotional knowing that these speeches belong to the ages now,” Jesse Jackson Jr., told the AP in October.

Neighbor wonders who could take on Jackson’s role

Dominique Ross has lived across from the Jackson home for nine years on Chicago’s South Side. She remembered Jackson for his open smile and welcoming attitude whether he was taking a walk or participating in the Bud Billiken Parade celebrating Black youth and community in Chicago each fall before the school year begins.

“I don’t know who will come up behind him, who will have as much of an impact as he has had on the Black community and just the world as a whole,” Ross said. “I mean, he’s an icon. They’re not going to make another man like him.”

Jackson’s neighbors in Chicago lament his passing

Harold Hall, who once lived in the neighborhood where Jackson’s home sits, slowly walked along the sidewalk and up the steps Tuesday morning to leave a small bouquet of flowers outside the Jackson family’s door.

Hall told reporters that Jackson helped local street organizations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Rev. Jackson was one of the ones that would come out and shoot ball and try to change the minds of many of our young folk,” Hall told reporters. “And in many instances, it happened. It worked.”

“I’m so hurt this morning,” Hall said. “It’s just hard for many of us. He was a trailblazer. He will be missed. We loved him.”

Biden cites ‘promise of America’ in eulogizing Jackson

“Throughout our decades of friendship and partnership, I’ve known Reverend Jackson as history will remember him: a man of God and of the people. Determined and tenacious. Unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our Nation,” former President Joe Biden said.

“I’ve seen how Reverend Jackson has helped lead our Nation forward through tumult and triumph. He’s done it with optimism, and a relentless insistence on what is right and just. Whether through impassioned words on the campaign trail, or moments of quiet courage, Reverend Jackson influenced generations of Americans, and countless elected leaders, including Presidents,” Biden’s statement said.

“Reverend Jackson believed in his bones the promise of America: that we are all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise, he dedicated his life to ensuring we never fully walked away from it either.”

Policymaking center credits Jackson’s groundbreaking for today’s Black political power

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank that deals with issues facing communities of color, said in a statement that it was “honored to walk alongside Reverend Jackson across the decades — and our histories are deeply intertwined.”

The Center noted that its voter mobilization efforts, “including our support of Operation Big Vote,” complemented Jackson’s own efforts on expanding the electorate. “Together, Jackson, the Joint Center, and partners across the movement helped build the architecture of Black political power that endures today.”

Black political think tank says Jackson ‘changed the course of American politics’

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said Jackson proved with his 1984 presidential campaign “that a Black candidate could compete at the highest level” by winning Democratic primaries and caucuses. He earned more than 3.2 million votes, a total Jackson more than doubled four years later, winning presidential primaries in more than a dozen states and becoming a “preeminent force in Democratic politics.”

“These were not merely campaigns — they were movements that registered millions of new voters, built a Rainbow Coalition, and laid the groundwork for every Black candidate who followed, including President Barack Obama,” the Washington-based center said.

Clintons: ‘We were friends for almost 50 years’

“Jackson championed human dignity and helped create opportunities for countless people to live better lives. Throughout it all, he kept marching to the music of his conscience, his convictions, and his causes, said a statement from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Reverend Jackson never stopped working for a better America with brighter tomorrows, including his historic campaigns for the Presidency in 1984 and 1988 in which he championed the concerns of Black, Latino, Asian, and lower income white Americans. I will always be grateful for the friendship he gave Hillary, Chelsea and me; proud to have nominated him as my Special Envoy for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa; and honored to present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

“Hillary and I loved him very much,” the statement said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to Jackie, their children and grandchildren, and all the people across America and around the world who were inspired by his service to humanity.”

Sharpton, eulogizing Jackson, says ‘everything he fought for is at risk’

At press conference in New York on Tuesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke about their long friendship. They met when Sharpton was 13 and first becoming involved in civil rights activism through the church. Sharpton said Jackson’s tireless work was not only an inspiration to his career, it was also vital to keeping the civil rights movement alive.

“I always wondered how much trauma that must have been for him to witness Rev. King’s assassination. He never would talk about it too much, but it drove him. He said ‘We’ve got to keep Dr. King’s legacy alive.’”

Jackson, perhaps more than any other civil rights advocate, pushed for diversity, equity and inclusion in corporations whose leadership was overwhelmingly white and male. Now, of course, DEI is targeted by the Trump administration for elimination.

“Everything he fought for is at risk, and if we want to mourn him we’ve got to preserve what he fought for,” Sharpton said.

Jackson’s alma mater honors him as an ‘international force for equality and justice’

“The indelible mark he left on our university and indeed, on all of us, is deeply felt this morning. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Jackson family and to all who knew him and benefitted from his life’s work,” North Carolina A&T Chancellor James R. Martin II said in a news release.

The university noted that “Jackson quickly established himself as a campus leader, ultimately becoming student government president, even as he quarterbacked the Aggie football team,” before graduating in 1964 with a B.S. in sociology. It also celebrated his wife Jacqueline L.B. Jackson, who graduated from NCA&T in 1967, and returned with generations of her family to receive an honorary doctorate.

Michigan governor candidate considered Jackson a mentor

“Personally, I am grateful for Rev. Jackson’s mentorship and example to me and so many others. He reinforced in me that speaking the truth is always the right thing to do in real time,” said Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who could become the state’s first Black governor if he wins this year’s race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Whitmer said Jackson had a “special connection” to Michigan and especially Detroit. “He visited often, standing with labor, working with local leaders, and inspiring the next generation of changemakers,” her statement said. “As we heed Rev. Jackson’s tireless call to ‘Keep hope alive,’ let’s also continue to do the hard work of building a freer, fairer Michigan for all.”

African American Mayors Association mourns ‘most influential civil rights champion of our time’

“He showed us that change is possible when we have the courage to demand it,” said the association’s president, Mayor Van R. Johnson II of Savannah, Georgia.

“His two historic presidential campaigns opened the door to what is possible for Black leaders in America and became a direct inspiration for so many of us; as he said, ‘if our minds can conceive it, if our hearts can believe it, then we know that we can achieve it,’” the statement said. “We will honor his memory by continuing the work he started, and recommitting ourselves to the fight for a better, more just nation.”

NAACP honors ‘a towering moral voice’

Jackson was “a transformative leader whose life’s work is deeply woven into the history, mission, and enduring impact of our Association and the nation,” an NAACP statement said.

“He challenged this nation to live up to its highest ideals, and he reminded our movement that hope is both a strategy and a responsibility,” said the joint statement by NAACP Chairman Leon W. Russell, NAACP Vice Chair Karen Boykin Towns and NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson.

“Now, more than ever, we honor his legacy by continuing the work he championed: protecting the right to vote, expanding economic opportunity, and fighting for the freedom and dignity of Black people everywhere,” they said. “The Rev. Jackson’s passing marks the loss of a towering moral voice, but the movement he helped build will carry his light forward. His legacy calls each of us to stay committed, stay organized, and remain faithful to the pursuit of justice.

Chicago congressman laments his friend’s passing

“Of course, we have known that he was ill for quite some time, and that ultimately it would come,” Rep. Danny K. Davis’ statement said. “The work, the spirit, what he has meant, not only to the city, the state, country and this world will continue to live on.”

“I extend condolences to his family. Mrs. Jackie Jackson, all of his children, and the work that he has done will continue, because they are all seriously involved in public decision-making. And so though he will be gone, he will continue to live on.”

Atlanta mayor means to keep Jackson’s hopes alive

“I join the people of Atlanta mourning the passing of an American icon,” Mayor Andre Dickens said. "Rev. Jackson showed up for us consistently. He never stopped challenging leaders to do better by Americans, especially when it comes to economic justice. And that’s a fight that we will continue.”

“Here in Atlanta, as well as around the country, we would be wise to heed Rev. Jackson’s words and ‘keep hope alive.’ We intend to,” his statement said.

Illinois governor orders flags to half-staff

Gov. JB Pritzker ordered flags to half-staff across Illinois in honor of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Pritzker, a Democrat, called Jackson a “giant of the civil rights movement.”

“He broke down barriers, inspired generations, and kept hope alive,” Pritzker said in social media posts. “Our state, nation, and world are better due to his years of service.”

10 min ago

Human Rights Campaign recalls Jackson’s support for marriage equality

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, praised Jackson for embodying “courage, hope, and a relentlessness that will not be denied.”

“His historic presidential campaigns paved the way for generations of Black leaders to imagine ourselves in rooms we were once told were closed to us,” Robinson said in a statement.

“Reverend Jackson also stood up when it mattered; when it wasn’t easy and when it wasn’t popular. His support for marriage equality and for LGBTQ+ people affirmed a simple, powerful truth: Our liberation is bound together.”

Civil rights prosecutor says Jackson reminds Americans to ‘keep up the good fight’

Jackson’s impact “can be felt in virtually every aspect of American life,” said Kristen Clarke, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice during the Biden administration.

“A tireless and extraordinary public servant, his charge to all of us was to stay hopeful, keep up the good fight and respect the dignity and humanity of all people,” Clarke said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “Jackson has been, and will always be, a central part of the story regarding America’s ongoing quest for justice and equality.”

King’s son hopes Jackson’s life will inspire others to be ‘louder, braver, more faithful’

“Jackson was more than a civil rights advocate—he was a living bridge between generations, carrying forward the unfinished work and sacred promise of the Civil Rights Movement,” Martin Luther King III and his wife Andrea King said in a statement.

“He walked with courage when the road was uncertain, spoke with conviction when the truth was inconvenient, and stood with the poor, the marginalized, and the forgotten when it was not popular to do so. His life was a testament to the power of faith in action—faith that justice could be won, that dignity belongs to every person, and that love must always have the final word.”

“May his memory be a wellspring of strength and courage for all who continue the sacred work to which he gave his life. As he so often reminded us, “Keep hope alive.”

‘Poor People’s Campaign’ leader recalls Jackson’s hope for America’s promise

“Jesse Jackson was a gift from God and a witness that God exists in the ways he cared for and lifted all people, the way he called forth a rainbow coalition of people to challenge economic and social inequality from the pulpit to a historic presidential run, the way he dared to keep hope alive whenever the nation struggled with being who she says she is and yet ought to be,” said Bishop William J. Barber II, who co-founded the Poor People’s Campaign.

“When I was a college student, he was a gift to me as a mentor, and it has been my great privilege to have him walk alongside me through my whole public ministry,” Barber said. “May we all take up his hope for the America that has never yet been but nevertheless must be.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock on Jackson: ‘His ministry was poetry’

“America has lost one of its great moral voices. Reverend Jesse Jackson spent his life working to ensure our nation lives up to its highest ideals. From his early days as a young staffer with Dr. King onto the national stage, he fought for freedom, racial justice, equality, and for the human dignity of the marginalized and the poor,” said Warnock, the Georgia Democrat who doubles as senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the ‘spiritual home’ of the King family.

“With an eloquence and rhythmic rhetoric all his own, Jesse Jackson reminded America that equal justice is not inevitable; it requires vigilance and commitment, and for freedom fighters, sacrifice. His ministry was poetry and spiritual power in the public square. He advanced King’s dream and bent the arc of history closer to justice,” Warnock said.

South Africa’s president credits Jackson for hastening the end of apartheid

Jackson, who first travelled to South Africa in July 1979, just after Steve Biko’s passing, vigorously advocated for American sanctions on the apartheid regime and supported Nelson Mandela’s anti-apartheid struggle.

“His campaigns for an end to apartheid included disinvestment from the apartheid economy and challenging the support the regime enjoyed in certain circles and institutions internationally,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

“We are deeply indebted to the energy, principled clarity and personal risk with which he supported our struggle and campaigned for freedom and equality in other parts of the world.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton recalls his mentor’s lesson: ‘Faith without action is just noise’

“Today, I lost the man who first called me into purpose when I was just twelve years old. And our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices. The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson was not simply a civil rights leader; he was a movement unto himself. He carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice,” Sharpton said.

“One of the greatest honors of my life was learning at his side. He reminded me that faith without action is just noise. He taught me that protest must have purpose, that faith must have feet, and that justice is not seasonal, it is daily work.”

The Rev. Martin Luther King’s daughter eulogizes a life in the service of humanity

“He was a gifted negotiator and a courageous bridge‑builder, serving humanity by bringing calm into tense rooms and creating pathways where none existed,” the Rev. Bernice King said.

“My family shares a long and meaningful history with him, rooted in a shared commitment to justice and love. As we grieve, we give thanks for a life that pushed hope into weary places.”

An AP Photo Gallery showing glimpses of the life of the civil rights leader

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. AP photo editors curated a gallery.

President Donald Trump says Jackson ‘will be missed’

Trump remembered Jackson in a social media post that called him a “good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’”

The Republican president also described Jackson as “very gregarious -Someone who truly loved people!”

“He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!” Trump wrote.