Editor’s spotlight — updated daily
Jesse Jackson
United States
Jesse Jackson, born Jesse Louis Burns on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, became a civil rights leader, actor, and producer. He ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning several primaries in 1988. At the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, he was present when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Jackson founded the Rainbow Push Coalition and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died on February 17, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
