Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr., the civil rights titan whose moral vision reshaped the Democratic Party and whose voice echoed through hip-hop for decades, died Tuesday morning at age 84. His family and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition confirmed his passing on February 17, 2026.
Jackson’s death marks the closing of a chapter that connected the Civil Rights Movement directly to modern Black political power. He was not just a leader. He was the bridge.
From Selma to the Ballot Box
Jackson marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was present in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968, according to NPR. He carried that torch forward for more than six decades, championing voting rights, economic justice, and equality through direct action and political organizing.
His presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 changed everything. In 1984, Jackson won five primary contests and earned 3.2 million votes. In 1988, he more than doubled that total with 6.9 million votes and victories in 11 contests, CBS News Chicago reported. Those campaigns sent millions of Black voters to the polls for the first time and built the infrastructure that made Barack Obama’s 2008 victory possible.
His Rainbow Coalition, founded in 1984, was radical in its simplicity: build a multiracial alliance of Black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and LGBTQ communities around shared economic interests. That coalition reshaped the Democratic Party’s platform and proved that progressive politics could win broad support.
Hip-Hop’s Complicated Father Figure
Jackson’s relationship with hip-hop culture was deep, layered, and honest. He recognized the power of rap before most political leaders took it seriously. Rapper Kurtis Blow recalled Jackson pulling him aside at an early Chicago show and telling him that rap artists were becoming the new icons of Black America, as documented by Okayplayer.
His iconic “I Am Somebody” speech at the 1972 Wattstax festival before 100,000 people became foundational to hip-hop itself. Public Enemy, Jurassic 5, and countless other artists sampled and referenced those words, Hip Hop Wired noted. When hip-hop grew louder and more commercial in the 1990s and 2000s, Jackson challenged it on misogyny and violence. He organized a symbolic funeral for the N-word in 2007. He pushed back because he believed in the culture’s potential, not because he dismissed it.
That tension was productive. Jackson held hip-hop accountable the same way he held America accountable: with love, expectation, and an unwillingness to accept less than what was possible.
Why This Matters
Every time a young person registers to vote at a hip-hop concert, every time a rapper speaks on policy instead of just posting about it, every time a community organizer builds a multiracial coalition for change, they are walking on ground that Jesse Jackson cleared.
Jackson had been battling progressive supranuclear palsy after revealing a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017, according to AFTD. His body slowed, but his legacy never did.
The takeaway is simple. “Keep Hope Alive” was never just a slogan. It was an assignment. The best way to honor Rev. Jesse Jackson is to do the work: register voters, challenge power, build coalitions, and refuse to accept a country that falls short of its promise. That is the unfinished business he left us.
