US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South who became a close associate of Martin Luther King and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at age 84.

"Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement shared by NBC News. “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 honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

Jackson passed away peacefully. He had been living with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) for over a decade, a condition that affects movement and swallowing, and had publicly revealed a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017.

Jackson rose to prominence in the civil rights era, participating in demonstrations alongside the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. He began his work as an organiser with the Congress of Racial Equality, later joining the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

After Jackson's diagnosis was made public knowledge, Rev Al Sharpton praised his the civil rights leader's impact that has lasted generations. 

“As I watched him, I thought about the greatness of this man,” Sharpton said in an MSNBC video. “How he continued Martin Luther King’s movement for justice, how he cemented it in the North and made the King movement truly national … He changed the nation, he served in ways he never got credit. No one in our lifetime served longer and stronger. We pray for him, because he’s given his life for us.”

Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and their five children, including former US Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.