>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

>> Tonight the country is mourning a civil rights icon.

Reverend Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84 for decades.

Jackson fought for communities of color on issues like voting rights and job opportunities after sharing his Parkinson's diagnosis in 2017, he continued to make public appearances and run his rainbow push organization until stepping down in 2023.

But late last year, his doctors confirmed the diagnosis of super super a nuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder.

Here's a look at just some of his journey.

>> If that event it down if it is from burning, we have a movement here Chicago.

A B and church tonight.

>> From Martin Luther King Junior.

>> To President Barack Obama.

>> Reverend Jesse Jackson's 84 years span generations from the civil rights movement to the nation's first black president.

And so much history in between.

Jackson was born in 1941.

In Greenville, South Carolina, as a student at the historically black university, North Carolina, a and T he led siddons at whites only lunch counters and became immersed in a burgeoning civil rights movement eventually joining the march from Selma to Montgomery, led by Reverend King.

King eventually dispatched the young Jackson to Chicago to run operation breadbasket and economic campaign pressuring white businesses to hire black workers.

4 years later, Jackson stood outside the Lorraine Motel as he and other icons of the movement witnessed King's assassination.

heard from home.

>> We to you is one of those different Moment for become like come before another King.

All that stuff happened within a split second.

>> But after the assassination, when Jackson returned to Chicago, other King AIDS criticized him for wearing a sweater, supposedly soaked with King's blood for 2 days after the shooting.

In 1971, Jackson formed operation push on Chicago's South side with a mission to register voters in communities of color nationwide and diversify the workforce.

He would again write his name in the history books with not one but 2 campaigns for president.

>> The second run in 1988, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination.

>> We must that was the red out.

hope alive.

>> More than any other black politician.

until Barack Obama I don't think I and many other people realize to what extent.

>> Jesse Jackson paved the way, not just in the tactics of politics.

You know, the delegates in all of that stuff.

That sounds very wonky to a lot of people, but also in the message in the vision that he had of unity in a Democratic coalition of using all the different parts of the rainbow of America and putting them together in one political party.

He was largely responsible for that.

And frankly, in the 1980's.

No one realized that because it wasn't until Barack Obama became president that I think people started to realize, oh, wait, Jesse Jackson actually did something that lasted beyond those 2 campaigns.

>> Over the years, Jackson continued his fight for voting rights and to register as many people as he could.

He exerted influence abroad garnering the release of hundreds of captives and at-home standing with families like those of Ahmaud Arbery.

The black jogger killed by 3 white men in Georgia in 2021.

Jackson was known for his flair with words, his unmistakable cadence, so much that he even got in on the joke of it.

On a 1983 episode of Saturday Night Live.

>> You do not like green eggs and ham.

I do not like I am.

>> Though sometimes his words got him in trouble as when he apologized for using a derogatory reference to the Jewish population of New York in 1984. and in 2008 complaining that candidate Barack Obama was, quote, talking down to black people.

The ordained minister also acknowledged fathering a daughter outside of his marriage with one of his rainbow push employees.

In 2018.

We have a chance to ask him about his own legacy.

What do you think your legacy will be?

Reverend Jackson?

>> as of salt to continue the service.

person of faith.

For years, most frightened just law.

>> Even then he was still focused on what more he could do out time has come.

>> We've come from disgrace.

Grace.

Has come.

Give me your tired.

Give your pool, your huddled masses who united the breathe free and come November.

change.

It out of time.

Has Tom >> Jackson leaves behind his wife of 63 years.

Jacqueline Jackson and their children, San T to Jesse Junior.

Jonathan Yousef and Jacqueline as well, Jacqueline, yes, another Jacqueline as well as daughter Ashley Jackson and grandchildren.

In a statement, the family says, quote, Our father was a servant leader not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless and the overlooked around the world.

We ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by the Rainbow Push.

Coalition says public observances will be held here in Chicago and that details will be shared in the coming days.

And reactions are pouring in today.

In a statement, Mayor Brandon Johnson says, quote, I am devastated to lose my mentor and friend Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Senior.

We honor him and his hard-earned legacy as a freedom fighter, philosopher and faithful Shepherd of his family and community here in Chicago.

Former President Barack Obama says for more than 60 years, Reverend Jackson helped lead some of the most significant movements for change in human history.

Michelle got her first glimpse of political organizing at the Jacksons Kitchen table when she was a teenager.

And in his 2 historic runs for president, he laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land.

Andre Show Social President.

Donald Trump posted in part, quote, I knew him well long before becoming president.

He was a good man with lots of personality, grit and, quote, street smarts.

He was very gregarious.

Someone who truly loved people.

He had much to do with the election without acknowledgement or credits of Barack Hussein Obama, man who Jesse could not stand.

And president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers, Stacy Davis.

Gates says, quote, he marched with educators, students and families.

He walked picket lines.

He fought for the schools, our children deserve his leadership.

Expanded the map a possibility.

There's more reaction on our website.

You can find it at W T Tw dot com slash news and you can get more reaction by staying right here because up next, a look