SC H5197

South Carolina House of Representatives resolution honoring Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, who died on February 17, 2026, at age 84 after suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy for over a decade

Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina on October 8, 1941, attended Sterling High School where he was student class president and lettered in three sports, then earned a bachelor's degree from North Carolina A&T in 1964

Worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, heading the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket in 1966 and becoming national director in 1967, later founding organizations that became the Rainbow PUSH Coalition

Served as shadow senator from the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1997 and ran two presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988

Survived by wife Jaqueline Brown and six children, including two who served in the United States House of Representatives; resolution directs a copy be presented to his family