Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has passed away.

“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, according to 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.”

Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that “our nation lost one of its greatest moral voices” and paid tribute to a man who “carried history in his footsteps and hope in his voice.” “Reverend Jackson stood wherever dignity was under attack, from apartheid abroad to injustice at home. His voice echoed in boardrooms and in jail cells. His presence shifted rooms. His faith never wavered,” Sharpton said.

Jackson’s family stated he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones after being hospitalized in November. He had been living for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson revealed he had Parkinson’s in 2017 and was treated as an outpatient at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago for at least two years prior to sharing the diagnosis publicly.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson rose to prominence during the civil rights era, participating in demonstrations alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His activism spanned decades, including two runs for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. Though his campaigns registered over a million new voters and garnered more than 3.5 million votes, they faced controversy—including criticism for remarks about New York’s Jewish community and his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Jackson remained a pivotal figure in the Democratic Party throughout his life, advocating for platforms that addressed issues critical to Black voters. His legacy includes being the first African American to win major presidential primaries and the most successful Black U.S. presidential candidate until Barack Obama’s 2008 election.

“This is not a perfect party. We’re not a perfect people,” Jackson said during his 1984 presidential bid, according to NPR. “Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.”