Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies at 84

(The Center Square) – Jesse Jackson’s family says the civil rights leader, former presidential candidate and Rainbow/PUSH coalition founder was a servant leader. In a statement, his family said Jackson died peacefully Tuesday morning at the age of 84. Although the cause of death was not immediately released, Jackson was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disorder, last April and hospitalized in November. He had previously been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013. Jackson sought the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in 1984 and won five primary contests that year. He ran again in 1988 and won eleven contests, finishing second to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. Jesse Louis Jackson was born Oct. 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. According to his bio on the Rainbow/PUSH coalition website, Jackson began his activism as a student in the summer of 1960, when he sought to desegregate the local public library in Greenville. Jackson enrolled i