NYCLA Civil Rights & Liberties Committee Statement on the Passing of Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

The New York County Lawyers Association’s Civil Rights & Liberties Committee mourn the passing of the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., who died on February 17, 2026, at the age of 84.

Reverend Jackson devoted his life to the cause of civil rights, equal justice, and human dignity. A protégé of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated—and he spent the next six decades ensuring that the movement Dr. King led would not die with him.

Through the founding of Operation PUSH in 1971 and the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984—later merged as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition—Reverend Jackson built one of the most consequential advocacy organizations in American history. He insisted, throughout his career, that civil rights and economic rights are inseparable, and he fought to secure fair employment, lending, and contracting opportunities for Black Americans and other marginalized communities.

His two historic campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988, registered millions of new voters and fundamentally reshaped American electoral politics. He was the first African American candidate to mount a truly competitive national presidential campaign, and his successful effort to replace winner-take-all delegate rules with proportional representation expanded democratic participation in ways that endure today. His Rainbow Coalition—a deliberate alliance across lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation—helped lay the groundwork for a more inclusive Democratic Party and, ultimately, for the barrier-breaking candidacies that followed.

Beyond electoral politics, Reverend Jackson was a tireless advocate on the world stage, negotiating the release of American hostages and prisoners of war, opposing apartheid in South Africa, and lending his voice wherever dignity was under attack. At home, he challenged police brutality, voter suppression, and political disenfranchisement with the same moral urgency he brought to every cause he embraced.

As lawyers committed to civil rights, we recognize that much of what Reverend Jackson fought for was, at its core, a demand that the law fulfill its promises—that the guarantees of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 be given real and enduring meaning in the lives of all Americans. His work reminds us that the pursuit of equal justice under law is not merely a professional obligation but a moral one.

The NYCLA Civil Rights & Liberties Committee extends its deepest condolences to Reverend Jackson’s wife, Jacqueline, his five children, and the entire Jackson family. We also extend our gratitude to the countless organizers, lawyers, and activists who carried forward his vision alongside him.

Reverend Jackson often reminded the nation: Keep hope alive. As we honor his memory, we recommit ourselves to the unfinished work of securing civil rights and equal justice for all.