American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died on Tuesday at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family. Jackson, who worked alongside Martin Luther King in the 1960s, was awarded the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit, in 2021 in recognition of his lifetime of activism.
"The values promoted by Reverend Jackson are universal and are those of the Republic," read the statement from the Elysée Palace on the occasion of Jackson receiving the honour, on 19 July, 2021.
