Civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson has died, and he will be remembered as a tireless fighter for the civil rights movement alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Jackson, who rose to national prominence during the civil rights movement, championed the rights of not just African Americans, but also the poor and the working class, and sports analyst Skip Bayless posted a heartfelt tribute to him on X:
“RIP Rev. Jesse Jackson, who battled racism alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, then after the assassination rose into a national force of his own as an orator and tone-setter. I was fortunate enough to be his presence several times. Did this man ever have PRESENCE.”
As Bayless noted in his tweet, Jackson was a crusader against racism, marching alongside Dr. King in his youth. He became nationally well-known after the passing of Dr. King, as he delivered fiery oratory that brought civil rights to the forefront of the national conversation.
No cause of death was given so far, but he had been dealing with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and was hospitalized twice due to COVID-19 during the pandemic. He was 84 years old.
Jesse Jackson Was Once a Quarterback for North Carolina A&T And Fought For Athletes
Before his activism, and fight for equal rights for the marginalized, Jesse Jackson was also once a sports star, playing football for North Carolina A&T where he played quarterback.
While he soon became a civil rights leader, he never truly left the world of sport, as he fought for equal treatment for not just athletes, but also coaches. One of his most high-profile sports cases was when the Green Bay Packers fired head coach Ray Rhodes, with the reverend sensing some racial injustice in his firing after the 1999 season.
This ultimately led to nothing as Rhodes was fired after an 8-8 season that led the Packers to nowhere, but Jackson has shown that he would fight any form of injustice no matter where it is from.
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