American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson has passed away at the age of 84.

Rev. Jesse was a civil rights icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

The late activist famously marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s.

He passed away on February 17 as announced by his family in a statement shared on Instagram.

The family stated that Jesse passed away “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 family statement read.

Previously on November 25, 2025, his civil rights organisation Rainbow PUSH Coalition revealed he had been admitted in the hospital and was undergoing observation for his progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

A patient of PSP suffers from balance issues, swallowing and walking and eye movements.

Day before his death, his family denied rumours that he had been put on life support saying “Reverend Jackson is in stable condition and is breathing without the assistance of machines.”

Born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville South Carolina, Jesse worked on the frontlines of many historic moments in US.