Image source, Getty Images

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has recalled how Jesse Jackson was "one of the first people to call" him following the 2011 riots that started in Lammy's constituency of Tottenham.

He says Jackson was a "pillar of the civil rights movement" and a "dear friend" of his predecessor, the former Tottenham MP Bernie Grant.

"It was a privilege to share such precious time with him in Chicago and London over the years," Lammy writes on X.

"May his legacy live on."

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US President Donald Trump has described Jesse Jackson as a "force of nature like few others before him" in a tribute following the civil rights leader's death.

In a statement posted on Truth Social, Trump described Jackson as a good man with "lots of personality, grit and street smarts".

He says it was his pleasure to "help Jesse along the way", and says this is despite - he claims - that he is consistently called a racist by the "scoundrels and lunatics" on the "radical left".

"He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!" he adds.

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Leader of the House Democrats Hakeem Jeffries says Jackson "was a legendary voice for the voiceless," in a tribute to the late civil rights leader posted on X.

"For decades, while laboring in the vineyards of the community, he inspired us to keep hope alive in the struggle for liberty and justice for all," Jeffries writes.

"We are thankful for the incredible service of Rev. Jesse Jackson to the nation and his profound sacrifice as the people's champion."

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Jackson bore witness to several decisive moments in US history - including Barack Obama's election as the country's first black president.

He was seen in tears on the night Obama won the contest in Grant Park, Chicago, in November 2008.

"I thought about the moment. The movement," he told Vanity Fair, external in 2020.

"I wish they could have been there. Dr. King and Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.

"People who’d paid the supreme price. If God had let them live just 15 seconds more to see the fruits of their labor.

"I was blessed to be there to represent them as best I tried to."

If you're just joining us, US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died "peacefully" on Tuesday morning aged 84, his family has confirmed.

He was a huge figure in the civil rights movement and later US politics, campaigning twice for the Democratic presidential nomination.

You can see some his most notable moments in photos in this earlier post.

Jackson built a career around working to politically organise and improve the lives of African-Americans, and became a national force during his two White House campaigns, our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher writes.

Tributes have been shared around the world since the announcement of his death, including from Martin Luther King Jr's daughter Bernice King, and mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani.

We'll continue to bring you the latest.

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Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has paid tribute to Jesse Jackson.

Mamdani says the civil rights leader "never stopped demanding that America live up to its promise".

"He marched, he ran, he organized and he preached justice without apology," Mamdani writes in a post on X.

"May we honor him not just in words, but in struggle."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

A long political career followed Jesse Jackson's activism.

He travelled to Syria in 1983 to plead for the release of a captured American pilot, Lt Robert Goodman. His mission was successful, and greatly boosted his national profile.

In 1991 he visited Iraq on the eve of the Gulf War to plead with Saddam Hussein to release Western hostages.

Jackson ran twice for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1984 and 1988. He didn't win but he did get just under seven million votes at his second attempt.

Deciding against running for president a third time, he became a public supporter of Bill Clinton, who then made Jackson his special envoy for democracy and human rights in Africa in 1997.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 by Clinton, the highest civilian honour in America.

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Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, has posted a photograph, external of her father alongside Jesse Jackson with the caption “both now ancestors.”

In a second post on X, King says describes Jackson as a "gifted negotiator and a courageous bridge‑builder, serving humanity by bringing calm into tense rooms and creating pathways where none existed".

Jackson was a protégé of King and was with his mentor at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968.

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After George Floyd was killed on 25 May 2020, Jesse Jackson travelled to Minneapolis to take part in demonstrations and press for criminal charges.

Floyd's murder by police officer Derek Chauvin - captured on a bystander's phone camera - led to nationwide protests against racism and police brutality and sparked global outrage.

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Asked what was going through his mind as he lay a wreath for Floyd at the site of his killing, Jackson told Vanity Fair in 2020: "It was in some sense the worst of the civil rights killings all over again."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Diane Abbott, the first black woman elected to the UK Parliament, says Jesse Jackson was a "huge influence" on her.

"I first met him in 1987 when I'd first been elected. We kept in touch down the years," she tells BBC News.

"He was so principled. He never stopped for fighting for and caring about ordinary black people," she says, adding that he was "a link to the Martin Luther King era".

"He was a fantastic speaker, he was also charismatic. He was the sort of man you'd be walking down the street with him and people who didn't know who he was would turn and stare because he had such presence and such charisma."

Abbott, who sits as the independent MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, says his legacy "will be a whole generation of black politicians".

As a civil rights activist, Jackson was an influential figure in American politics.

Here he is pictured rubbing shoulders with a number of US presidents - both Republican and Democrat - from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Nomia Iqbal
News correspondent

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If Barack Obama shattered the glass ceiling when he became America’s first black president, Jesse Jackson created the cracks.

Jackson himself had run to secure the presidential nomination more than 20 years before Obama, but had failed to win over Democrats.

There were lots of reasons for that, particularly the different political eras the men ran in.

But their styles were notably different: Jackson was rhetorically fiery and entirely shaped by protest and the civil rights movement. Obama was post civil rights, and adopted a much cooler strategy, endeavouring to work within the system not rail against it.

Jackson denied he held any resentment, but had to apologise during Obama’s campaign in 2008 when a hot mic caught him making crude comments. He had also accused Obama of talking down to black people.

Jackson was hugely supportive in the end, and was famously seen in tears in Grant Park, Chicago, on the night Obama won.

He went on to describe Obama’s win as the culmination of a 60-year race by black people for full political inclusion.

Image source, Getty Images

Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, who worked closely with Jackson during the civil rights movement, describes him as his mentor and says he has just "prayed with his family by phone".

Jackson was a "consequential and transformative leader who changed this nation and the world", Sharpton says in a statement on X.

"He shaped public policy and changed laws. He kept the dream alive and taught young children from broken homes, like me, that we don’t have broken spirits," Sharpton says.

"He told us we were somebody and made us believe. I will always cherish him taking me under his wing, and I will forever try to do my part to keep hope alive.

"A giant has gone home. Sending prayers, so many prayers, love, and heartfelt condolences to the Jackson family and to every person around the world whose life he touched and who loved him."

Image source, AP Photo/Charles Kelly

Jesse Jackson was present with Martin Luther King Jr when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

The now-famous image above, taken the day before King was shot dead, shows the pair alongside Hosea Williams and Ralph Abernathy on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel - almost the exact spot where King would be killed.

They had been in Memphis for a civil rights protest.

Jackson told reporters that he cradled King's head as he died - although other witnesses did not confirm that account. The next day, Jackson controversially appeared on television with his clothes still stained with King's blood, assuming the mantle of civil rights leadership.

Image source, Getty Images

Bonnie Greer, the American-British playwright and author, has called Jesse Jackson "a great man".

"The ranks are dwindling, unfortunately," she tells BBC News.

"He was like a big brother to my generation. We were the children of the civil rights generation," she says.

Greer says Jackson acted as a "bridge" between generations of the civil rights movement.

"He kind of interpreted us to them," she says, adding that "he was a figure that we don't have any more".

"He was a man who was able to see the big picture, he was able to see the little picture, he was able to put them together to make the idea of America and the world into what he saw - a world where people can not only be equal, they can get better at being equal."

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Jesse Jackson, a key figure during the US civil rights movement of the 1960s, was known for being the first African-American to make the jump from activism to major-party presidential politics.

A protege of Martin Luther King Jr, Jackson built a career around working to politically organise and improve the lives of African-Americans, and became a national force during his two White House campaigns.

While other African Americans sought the US presidency, Jackson was the first to find significant success at the ballot box – which would pave the way for those who came after, including Barack Obama and Kamala Harris.

Over the course of his career, Jackson built a movement to bring America's increasingly diverse population together, with a message that centred on poor and working-class Americans.

Image source, Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A gifted orator, Jackson articulated the frustrations of those who felt like second-class citizens in the world's most prosperous democracy. His speech to the 1988 Democratic National Convention, which ended with the refrain "keep hope alive", would be echoed decades later in the "hope and change" slogan of Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign.

After his historic run of presidential campaigns, Jackson went on to position himself as an elder statesman within the Democratic Party.

However, Jackson's later years would be punctuated by scandal, including revelations of marital infidelity and financial impropriety involving his son and political heir, Jesse Jackson Jr, who served as a congressman from Illinois.

In 2017, the elder Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and largely withdrew from public life. That diagnosis was subsequently changed to one of progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disease with similar symptoms.

Image source, Getty Images

Jesse Jackson was a prominent civil rights campaigner who ran twice for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1984 and 1988.

Born on 8 October 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson became involved in politics at an early age.

He rose to prominence in the 1960s as a leader in Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He was present with King when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

He launched two social justice and activism organisations: Operation PUSH in 1971, and the National Rainbow Coalition a dozen years later.

Jackson remained an activist into later life, pursuing civil rights for disenfranchised groups both in the United States and abroad.

Jesse Jackson's cause of death has not yet been confirmed, but he was hospitalised in November, and doctors said he'd been diagnosed with a degenerative condition called progressive supranuclear palsy.

In 2017, Jackson announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a progressive disorder which affects the brain, nervous system, and muscle control.

Jackson called it a "physical challenge" but continued his civil rights advocacy.

His father, Noah Lewis Robinson Sr, also had Parkinson's and died of the disease in 1997 at the age of 88.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Civil Rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Honorable Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

"He died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family.

"His unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and human rights helped shape a global movement for freedom and dignity. A tireless change agent, he elevated the voices of the voiceless from his Presidential campaigns in the 1980s to mobilising millions to register to vote - leaving an indelible mark on history.

"Reverend Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; their children - Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, Jacqueline; daughter Ashley Jackson, and grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his mother, Helen Burns Jackson; father, Noah Louis Robinson; and stepfather, Charles Henry Jackson.

'"Our father was a servant leader - not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world. We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honour his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.

"Public observances will be held in Chicago. Final arrangements for Reverend Jackson's celebration of life services, including all public events, will be released by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition."