AMERICA LOSES A GIANT: Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1941–2026
The man who dared to say “I Am Somebody” to a nation that often disagreed has passed on — but his echo will outlast the silence.
The Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. died peacefully on the morning of February 17, 2026, surrounded by his family, hymns filling the room as one of America’s most consequential voices breathed his last. He was 84.
For many Americans, Jesse Jackson was a fixture — a near-permanent presence on the front lines of history. He was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma just weeks before his death, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, still showing up where justice demanded a witness.  That was Jesse Jackson. He never stopped showing up.
A Baptist minister and two-time presidential candidate, Jackson’s booming oratory and populist message propelled the Civil Rights Movement in the decades after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  He was with King in Memphis the night before he was killed in 1968. He carried that weight — and that fire — for the rest of his life.
He founded what became the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, an organization focused on civil rights, voter registration, and economic empowerment. Over decades of activism, he received dozens of honorary degrees and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 by President Bill Clinton. 
Barack Obama wrote that he was “deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant,” noting that Jackson “laid the foundation” for his own campaign for the presidency — and that Michelle Obama got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons’ kitchen table as a teenager. 
In his final months, as he received 24-hour care, Jackson lost his ability to speak — communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.  The man whose voice once shook convention halls and courtrooms and the halls of foreign governments, reduced to a gentle grip. There is something both devastating and deeply human about that.
His family said it best: “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.” 
He is survived by his wife Jacqueline, five children, and grandchildren — and by every person who ever heard him say you are somebody and believed it, maybe for the first time.
Rest well, Reverend. The fight continues.
— USDailyLetter.com Staff