Jesse Jackson, the prominent American civil rights activist, has died at the age of 84.

“Our father was a great leader. He was not only a defender of our family, but also of the oppressed and the disenfranchised around the world,” his family said in a statement.

Like his European counterparts, Jesse Jackson fought tirelessly for the rights of black Americans in the 1960s alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

His European counterparts were also Democratic presidential candidates in 1984 and 1988.

Jesse Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017 and was hospitalized last November.

Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist who worked with him in the civil rights movement, said, "He was a man who changed the country and the world. He changed policy and law. He kept our dreams alive and passed them on to our children."

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

Born in South Carolina in 1941, Jesse Jackson was politically active from a young age.

In 1971, he founded the social justice and civil rights organization Operation Push.