00:00Jesse Jackson was known for saying excellence is the best deterrent to racism,
00:05a belief he tried to reflect as a politician, activist, and ordained Baptist minister.
00:11In the 1960s, he fought in the Civil Rights Movement alongside his mentor, Martin Luther King Jr.
00:16In fact, he was with King on a hotel balcony when the Civil Rights leader was assassinated in Memphis in
00:221968.
00:24I've been blessed by God to come back here 50 years later.
00:27And every time the scab comes off, the soil is still raw.
00:35The blood still loses.
00:37After King's assassination in 1971, Jackson founded People United to Save Humanity, or PUSH,
00:44a group dedicated to continuing the slain leader's work.
00:48Then in 1984, he became the second African American, after Shirley Chisholm,
00:53to mount a nationwide campaign for U.S. president.
00:55He finished third in the Democratic primary.
00:59After the election, he merged PUSH with another non-profit,
01:03forming the influential Rainbow PUSH Coalition,
01:06known for championing liberal causes, such as affirmative action.
01:10Jackson ran for president again in 1988, but that would be the last time.
01:15Later in life, he continued to speak out on issues he cared about,
01:18against racism and police violence.
01:20In the 2020 presidential race, he endorsed Bernie Sanders over Joe Biden.
01:31A year later, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded Jackson one of France's highest honors,
01:37the Legion of Honor, in recognition of what Macron called a long walk towards emancipation and justice.
01:44By then, he had announced he had Parkinson's disease,
01:47and in 2025 received a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy, or PSP.
01:53Despite his declining health, he continued to make public appearances,
01:57including at the 2024 Democratic Convention, where he was greeted by the crowd as a hero of the party.
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