Eric Christopher Webb, DDiv., CPLC
Director of Communications
/Editor of The Sphinx
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
ewebb@apa1906.net
Cell: 443-635-5911
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Mourns the Death of Civil Rights Movement Icon and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Frater Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. mourns the death today of the late Civil Rights Movement icon and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Frater Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., a founder of the Rainbow PUSH Organization, and protégé and close aide of the late Brother Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was 84.
“We the men of Alpha lift up his family and community in prayers,” said Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. General President Brother Lucien J. Metellus, Jr. “The strives we have made as a nation can be directly tied to the work of Jesse Jackson and now more than ever we need more people that will fight the good fight.”
Frater Jackson rose to national prominence in the 1960s and became one of the most influential civil rights leaders in America.
Over the years, Frater Jackson cemented his legacy not only as a prominent Civil Rights Movement icon, but as an influential national and international statesman. His activism and notable economic boycotts against Anheuser Bush, Coca Cola, CBS television affiliates, and Kentucky Fried Chicken through his organizations, led to minority job concessions from white businesses, and became a blueprint to push for social and economic justice for African Americans.
In International matters, Frater Jackson travel to Syria and successfully secured the release of a captured American Navy pilot, who was shot down on a mission to bomb Syrian positions, after he made a dramatic personal appeal to Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1983. After an invitation by Cuban President Fidel Castro, he negotiated the release of 22 Americans held there a year later.
His bold, but unsuccessful 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns, demonstrated that an African American candidate could stage a viable campaign for the highest office in the country, making him a force to be reckoned with. In 1990, he would be elected to the United States Senate for the District of Columbia, serving one term as a shadow delegate.
Over the last several decades, he continued to tirelessly advocate for justice and equal protection for African Americans and people of color from the shooting and murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman to expressing support for pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, comparing them to divestment campaigns for South Africa.
Today, the nation, not only African Americans, have lost a champion. The Fraternity offers its sincerest condolences to his family, Fraternity, friends, and all who admire him.
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The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African American men, was founded on December 4, 1906, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and is headquartered in Baltimore, MD. The Fraternity has long stood at the forefront of the African American community’s fight for civil rights through Alpha men such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; late former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell; late former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; legendary activist, actor and performer, Paul Robeson, former Ambassador Andrew Young; late former Senator Edward Brooke; scholar, Cornel West; Senator Raphael Warnock; Congressman Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus; General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; six other members of the U.S. Congress, numerous state, and local lawmakers across the United States, as well as President of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Boakai, Sr. The fraternity, through its more than 720 college and alumni chapters and general-organization members, serves communities in the United States, and other parts of North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.