WORLD leaders share memories of Jesse Jackson, a leader of the US civil rights movement who passed away on Tuesday.
He was a baptist minister who rose from the segregated South to become a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr..
Jackson passed away on Tuesday in the United States at age 84. His family confirmed his death in a statement, saying Jackson “died peacefully”, though it did not specify a cause.
Jackson remained politically active throughout his life, including through his leadership in some of the country’s top civil rights groups.
In the late 1960s, he helmed Operation Breadbasket, which addressed economic inequality among black people. Later, he founded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to help engage national audiences on issues of social justice.
Jackson also ran twice for the Democratic presidential nomination, once in 1984 and again in 1988.
US president Donald Trump issued a Truth Social post on Tuesday, saying that he “knew him well, long before becoming President”.
“He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’ He was very outgoing, someone who truly loved people!” the president said.
Barack Obama, former US president, released a statement explaining that he is “deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant.”
He said that he and his wife, Michelle Obama, were directly inspired by Jackson, writing: “Michelle got her first glimpse of political organising at the Jacksons’ kitchen table when she was a teenager.
Joe Biden, immediate past US president, remembered the civil rights activist as “determined and tenacious”.
“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,” he shared on a post in X.
Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, former US president and former Secretary of State, in a social media statement, said they became friends with Jackson after meeting him in 1977, during events marking the 20th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his condolences and described Jackson as a “global moral authority” who stood firm in the fight for justice and equality.
“Rev. Jesse Jackson’s irrepressible campaigns against apartheid and his support for the liberation struggle was a towering contribution to the global anti-apartheid cause,” Ramaphosa wrote.
“He has fought a good fight and run the race which his baptist ministry inspired him to run. He made the world a better place but he has also influenced us to maintain his good fight in places where injustice and inequality persist.” —Aljazeera
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