A giant of the American civil rights struggle and a political pioneer, the Reverend Jesse Jackson now belongs to history. We examine what he did - and what he meant to America.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson passed away on 17 February at the age of 84. He was a charismatic religious figure who transformed himself into the leading public voice for African American dreams, hopes and aspirations in the years following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jnr. Beyond his role in the civil rights revolution, he was the first African American to make a real race of it as a presidential candidate in two separate electoral cycles. And his electoral efforts cracked open the door that Barack Obama walked through a generation later.

Speaking of the late civil rights leader, former president Obama said of him: "From organising boycotts and sit-ins, to registering millions of voters, to advocating for freedom and democracy around the world, he was relentless in his belief that we are all children of God, deserving of dignity and respect." Jackson was supremely comfortable in joining together religious feelings with down-to-Earth political efforts.

At the apex of Jackson's prominence and social and political influence in America, he was a frequent presence on television, as well as at protests and demonstrations across the nation, speaking strongly as a champion for the urgent necessity for government action on...