Seven Pivotal Moments in Jesse Jackson’s Life

The Rev. Jesse Jackson entered the national spotlight during the civil rights movement, ran for president twice and remained a controversial figure in public life. He died on Tuesday at 84. He came to wider national attention at the movement’s lowest moment: the 1968 assassination of the Rev.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which he witnessed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. On April 4, 1968, Mr. Jackson was in the motel parking lot, speaking with Dr. King, who was on the second-floor balcony, when James Earl Ray shot him. "We hoped it was his arm, but the bullet hit him in the neck," Mr.

Jackson later said. He was 26 and a protégé of Dr. King, and he described the motel room as "the scene of the crucifixion." Mr. Jackson’s first presidential bid came in 1984, making him the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination since Shirley Chisholm in 1972.

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