The Close Ally Of The Late Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Died This February 17th At Age 84
A Brief Tribute by Doug Draper
Posted February 17th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
He was one of the very last (Andrew Young is now about the only one left) of the leading civil rights figures who stood in close proximity to Martin Luther King in the struggle for equal rights and a better life for Black Americans and for all people suffering from oppression and poverty in his country and around the world.
And he at King’s side, right up to the moment he was assassinated in April, 1968.
In the 1980s, Jesse Jackson, who died at age 84 this February 17th following a long struggle of his own with Parkinson’s disease, also became the first Black person up to that time in American history to come close to winning the Democratic nomination to run for U.S. president.
His run for the presidency paved the way for the victory of the first Black president, Barack Obama, who he endorsed and who won in 2010. He made his last major public appearance during the 2024 Democratic Convention where he was wheeled out onto the stage, looking quite frail and unable to speak by then, to endorse presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
How sad it is that over the past 10 or so years Parkinson’s disease robbed him of his passionate voice because we sure could have used it during these continued dark and divisive times of Donald Trump.
More now than ever, the world needs voices like Jessie Jackson.
To A True Civil Rights Hero. Rest In Peace
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
For more on Jesse Jackson, click on the screen immediately below to hear his speech, when he was in full flight, at the 1984 Democratic Convention –
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