Seven pivotal moments in Jesse Jackson’s life

Once tipped as the man most likely to become America’s first black president, Jesse Jackson was an inspirational leader to millions in the US civil rights moment. AdvertisementUSASeven pivotal moments in Jesse Jackson’s lifeThe politician and civil rights leader inspired generations of Americans seeking change.By Neil VigdorFebruary 18, 2026SaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareAAAMillions of Democrats cast primary votes for him, envisioning him as America’s first black president.Along the way, there would be convention keynote speeches and, at times, self-inflicted controversy for the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday at 84.Jesse Jackson (centre) leads a protest in 1970 in New York for Operation Breadbasket, an economic development campaign.NYTHis life ran in parallel to the successes of the civil rights era, but it was at the movement’s lowest moment that he came to wider national attention: the 1968 assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, which he witnessed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.Here are seven key moments in his life. Martin Luther King’s assassination On April 4, 1968, Jackson was in the motel parking lot, speaking with King, who was on the second-floor balcony above him, when King was shot by James Earl Ray.Advertisement“We hoped it was his arm, but the bullet hit him in the neck,” Jackson told reporters while visiting the motel, now a civil rights landmark, before Tennessee’s Democratic presidential primary in 1984.Jackson (second left) appears with Martin Luther King (second right) on the balcony at the Memphis hotel where King was assassinated one day later.APAt the time of the assassination, Jackson was 26 years old and a protege of King.“This is the scene of the crucifixion,” he said, taking reporters on a tour of Room 306, where the civil rights leader had been staying. 1984 presidential campaign With his entry into the 1984 Democratic primary race, Jackson became the first black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination for president since Shirley Chisholm, the trailblazing Brooklyn Congress member who ran unsuccessfully in 1972.At a campaign kickoff rally, Chisholm introduced Jackson, who was then 42 and had criticised Democrats for what he described as their lacklustre opposition to president Ronald Reagan.AdvertisementRelated ArticleValeJesse Jackson, civil rights leader and US presidential hopeful, dies at 84Jackson viewed his candidacy as inspirational to a rainbow coalition – black, white and Hispanic citizens, women, American Indians and “the voiceless and downtrodden”.He finished third to the eventual nominee, Walter Mondale, the former vice president, who lost the general election in a landslide. The ‘Hymietown’ controversy Just as Democrats were preparing to cast their primary votes for president in 1984, Jackson was swept up in a political maelstrom involving his use of an antisemitic slur.On several occasions when speaking to reporters, he had referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York as “Hymietown,” according to The Washington Post.“Hymie” is a shortened version of the name Hyman, which is relatively common among Jews, and many consider the term offensive.AdvertisementAfter initially seeking to discredit the report, Jackson apologised.Jackson embraces PLO leader Yasser Arafat in Beirut in 1979.APBut the controversy sowed further misgivings about Jackson’s candidacy among Jewish voters, as he had supported the creation of an independent Palestinian state and called for recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.Jackson had also drawn criticism when he embraced PLO leader Yasser Arafat during a visit to the Middle East in 1979 and for his previous political ties with Louis Farrakhan, the Black Muslim leader who had called Adolf Hitler “a great man” and Judaism “a gutter religion”. 1984 DNC keynote Democrats entered their national convention in San Francisco as a fractured party, with some divisions exacerbated by Jackson’s candidacy.But on the second night of the gathering, Jackson called for unity and sought to put questions about his loyalty to the party behind him in a speech that was evangelical in its tone and filled with biblical references.AdvertisementJackson addresses the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.NYT“If I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self,” he said. “Charge it to my head, not to my heart.”Jackson likened America to a quilt, a patchwork of disparate constituencies that deserved a voice. 1988 presidential campaign Building on his name recognition and base of support in the South, Jackson returned to the campaign trail emboldened in 1988. The clergyman from Chicago and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition made inroads with white voters, winning three times as many votes from them as he did four years earlier.A campaign badge from Jackson’s 1988 primary campaign.Nearly 7 million people voted for Jackson in the primaries and caucuses that year, delivering him victories in 13 contests.AdvertisementHe finished a solid sec