N.C. A&T Mourns the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. ’64

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Feb. 17, 2026) – Civil rights icon, presidential candidate and beloved alumnus of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. ‘64 passed away this morning. He was 84.

“Aggie Nation mourns the loss of our friend and international force for equality and justice, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.,” said North Carolina A&T Chancellor James R. Martin II. “The indelible mark he left on our university and indeed, on all of us, is deeply felt this morning. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Jackson family and to all who knew him and benefitted from his life’s work.”

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson transferred to A&T from the University of Illinois-Champaign in 1960, shortly after the A&T Four’s legendary sit-in protest at the Greensboro Woolworth’s electrified the civil rights movement. Already a civil rights activist, Jackson quickly established himself as a campus leader, ultimately becoming student government president, even as he quarterbacked the Aggie football team. He also became a brother in the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, one of the legendary "Divine Nine" Black Greek-letter organizations, and eventually chapter president.

He graduated in 1964 with a B.S. in sociology and moved north to attend Chicago Theological Seminary before being ordained as a minister. In 1965 he went to Selma, Alabama, to march with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and became a worker in King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was with King in 1968 at a Memphis, Tennessee, hotel when King was assassinated; images of them on the hotel balcony are among the most iconic of the 1960s.

Jackson helped found the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the SCLC, in 1966 and served as the organization’s national director from 1967 to 1971.

In 1971, Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), a Chicago-based organization in which he advocated Black self-help and achieved a broad audience for his progressive humanitarian views.

Jackson became the first Black man to run for the U.S. presidency in 1984 and 1988, winning four Democratic primaries/caucuses in the first race and 11 in the second, along with 6.9 million votes. His breakthrough campaigns served as proof that a Black leader could be a highly competitive candidate for the nation’s highest office.

He served as “shadow senator” for Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 1997 and in 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1984 he also established the National Rainbow Coalition, which sought equal rights for African Americans and other oppressed minorities. These two organizations merged in 1996 to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

A frequent visitor to A&T over the past 60 years, he often returned at what is widely known as the Greatest Homecoming on Earth, reconnecting with classmates and old friends. In 2021, he accompanied his wife, alumna Jacqueline L.B. Jackson, as she received an honorary doctorate from A&T.

His books include Straight from the Heart (1987; ed. by Roger D. Hatch and Frank E. Watkins) and Legal Lynching: Racism, Injustice, and the Death Penalty (1995).

He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Jackson ’67, as well as his six children: Santita Jackson, Jesse L. Jackson Jr. ’87, Jonathan Jackson ‘88, Jacqueline Jackson ’98, Yusef DuBois Jackson and Ashley Laverne Jackson.