When Barack Obama won the presidential election in 2008, becoming the United States' first black president
it was enough to bring Jesse Jackson to tears. It was a moment Jackson himself had paved the way for
He ran for president twice in the 1980s and was the first African American to have significant success at the ballot box
In a statement, Obama wrote, Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant, adding, we stood on his shoulders
Jesse Jackson changed American politics. He was a consequential and transformative figure
Kamala Harris, the first black woman to become vice president, said in a statement
Reverend Jesse Jackson was one of America's great patriots. He spent his life summoning
all of us to fulfill the promise of America and building the coalitions to make the promise real
Friends and supporters also paid tribute outside the headquarters of Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition in Chicago
I felt like he was like family. I mean, he did a lot of things for me and the community as well
What I am somebody means is that all you have to do is just keep pushing
pushing, keep pushing. And that's what Jesse taught us. In a statement, former President Bill Clinton said that Jesse Jackson championed human dignity
And former President Joe Biden described Jackson as a man of God and of the people
For his part, President Trump wrote of Jackson, he was a good man with lots of personality, grit, and street smarts
Jackson was a protege of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr
and was at his side when King was assassinated in 1968. King's daughter, Bernice, called Jackson a courageous bridge builder
posting a photo of her father and Jackson with the caption, both now ancestors