In photos: Jesse Jackson's life, activism and politics

The Rev. Jesse Jackson died Tuesday after a career in activism and politics during a national transformation in civil rights and inequality, where he worked alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and made a historic presidential run. Through the lens: Here's a look at some of Jackson's most memorable moments, from rallying Black residents devastated by riots in Los Angeles to meeting Nelson Mandela after being released from prison. Mahalia Jackson, left, sings "We Shall Overcome," with civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King, third left, Jesse Jackson, second from right, and Albert Raby, right, on Aug. 4, 1966. Ray Foster/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Jackson, interviewed by reporters at Chicago's O'Hare Airport the day after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, in April 1968. Jackson was standing next to King before he was shot. Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images As he walks through O'Hare Airport, Jackson holds a copy of the Daily Defender newspaper, which features the headline 'King Murdered!,' on April 5, 1968. Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images Jackson, director of Operation Bread Basket, a unit of the Southern Christian Leadership, salutes people attending a Newark City Council meeting in Newark, N.J., in July 1970. Photo: Patrella/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images  An advertisement for the documentary "Wattstax," a music festival in Los Angeles in 1972 that drew 100,000 people, and where Jackson gave his famous "I Am Somebody" speech. Photo: LMPC via Getty Images Jackson announces in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 3, 1983, that he is running for president as a Democrat to challenge President Reagan. Photo: Jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma via Getty Images The marquee at the Apollo Theater advertises a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Jackson on Feb. 1, 1984. Photo: Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images In a hotel room during the 1984 Democratic National Convention, American pop singer Michael Jackson attends a press conference with Jackson in San Francisco, July 1984. Photo: Robert R. McElroy/Getty Images South African activist Nelson Mandela, center, with Jackson, right, and New York City Mayor David Dinkins in New York City, 1990. Photo: David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Jackson speaks to the press during the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Photo: Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Jackson shaking hands with residents of the Oglala Lakota Nation during a July 1999 visit by President Clinton, the first U.S. president to visit a Native American reservation since Presidents Coolidge and Roosevelt. Photo: Dirck Halstead/Getty Images The image of a weeping Jackson is projected onto a large screen as CNN announces the victory of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Nov. 4, 2008, during Obama's election night rally at Grant Park in Chicago. Photo: Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images A frail (and in a wheelchair) Jackson took part in a prayer (his hand is being held by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters) when the marchers stopped on the bridge in Selma, Alabama, in March 2025 to remember the marchers and John Lewis, who took part in the Bloody Sunday event 60 years before. Photo: Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images Go deeper: Civil rights icon Jesse Jackson dies at 84