“I am… somebody.”
Renowned Civil Rights Leader Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., famous for that iconic call-and-response chant, which became a staple at human rights rallies worldwide, has passed away at the age of 84.
His Tuesday, Feb. 17 passing was announced via Instagram on Jackson’s official account in a collaboration post with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Jackson Family Foundation and his son, Yusef Jackson, who has served in various executive leadership roles within organizations his father founded.
It is not lost on this nation — one that is still struggling to reckon with an historic political, racial and socio-economic divide Jackson spent his life working to heal — that he died during Black History Month.
“Today, Maryland mourns the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson — a giant of the civil rights movement and a champion for the dignity of working people,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said in a statement released this morning.
“Of the many shoulders that we stand on, Jesse Jackson’s were amongst the broadest. He led with love and reminded all of us of our voice and our power,” Gov. Moore continued. “Reverend Jackson was a trailblazer who never waited for permission or to ask for a seat at the table—he insisted on it, and he widened that table for generations to come.”
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A charismatic speaker, one of Jackson’s most recent appearances in the state of Maryland was at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington in 2018, where he called on the community to continue MLK’s work.
“No president, no congress stands higher and has more global [impact] than Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Jackson said in the sermon to Marylanders.
While Jackson was not a fixture in Montgomery County per se, his voice, his presence and his philosophy has deeply affected the county for at least two generations.
“We embrace Reverend Jackson’s legacy of justice, fairness, and inclusion as core values of Montgomery County. We are a community that takes pride in our diversity and in the belief that government should serve everyone,” County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement. “He understood that progress is not handed down; it’s organized, demanded, and defended.”
Councilmember Andrew Friedson, turning to his personal social media account to share his sadness about Jackson’s passing, wrote: “‘Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.’ May Rev. Jesse Jackson’s memory be for an eternal blessing and a call to action for positive change.”
A mainstay in the Washington, D.C. region, Jackson even purchased a secondary home in the historic Le Droit Park neighborhood of the District from Howard University in between his historic 1984 and 1988 presidential runs.
Montgomery County residents lived, worked and organized within the same political and media ecosystem that amplified Jackson’s voice globally. From the county’s African American churches and civic groups to its classrooms and political organizations, Jackson’s messages were rooted in nonviolent advocacy for racial justice, economic equity and political participation . They were intertwined with the political messages steeped in social equity and human rights that continue to reverberate throughout the county today.
Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson was a high school athlete and student body leader. His activism began as a student in the summer of 1960 when he sought to desegregate Greenville’s public library, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson went on to graduate from North Carolina A&T State University where he was class president and played quarterback for the football team, earning a B.S. in sociology in 1964.
A year later, he got involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He soon became a protégé of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and was a part of his inner circle.
Jackson was in Memphis with Dr. King during the sanitation workers’ strike and was inside the Lorraine Motel when Dr. King was shot on April 4, 1968. After the fatal shot was fired, Jackson ran outside immediately afterward, where he was photographed and interviewed in the chaotic moments following the assassination.
Montgomery County residents have followed Jackson’s impactful servant leadership style from his early beginning with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and later through his founding of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which championed voting rights, worker protections and economic opportunity — issues that continue to shape policy debates locally, nationally and globally.
Jackson’s advocacy for federal workers and economic justice also resonated strongly in Montgomery County, home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of federal employees and contractors. His long-standing warnings about economic inequality and instability in federal systems echoed the lived experiences of many county residents, particularly during moments of national disruption.
Locally, Montgomery County activists’ ongoing work through initiatives like racial equity programs, civil rights education, and historical reconciliation reflect principles Jackson spent his life advancing. While he may not have been physically present at every table, his ideas shaped the conversations held there.
In Montgomery County, Jackson was not just a national figure seen on television or read about in news headlines; for some he was a moral compass whose words helped guide them toward civic engagement and the thought that justice for all could someday be a reality through collective action.
The 2025 Tony award-winning stage play, Purpose, is said to be inspired by many of the themes that ran throughout Jackson’s life as a public servant: faith, power, legacy and familial strains that conflict with leadership in the public eye. The family-centered drama, written by Pulitzer prize-winner Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, examines the heavy burdens carried by a fictional Black civil rights leader, and imperfect husband and father during the twilight of his career.
Reverend Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, whom he wed in 1963 and their five children: Santita Jackson, Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Jonathan Luther Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Esq. and Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson, Jr.
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