Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson dies aged 84

U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has died aged 84, his family confirmed, saying he passed away peacefully surrounded by relatives.

Jackson, who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and later ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice in the 1980s, was widely credited with expanding voter registration and championing social justice causes for more than six decades.

Jackson had been battling Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare degenerative neurological disorder, after an earlier Parkinson’s diagnosis.

He is survived by his wife Jacqueline and six children.