Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s homegoing and funeral were fit for a king, supporters say, including the presence of Presidents Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama
What Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., achieved within the dash between his life and death attracted thousands of mourners from around the world and culminated Saturday, March 7, at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters he began in 1971, where his children shared their love for their beloved father.
Rev. Jackson died at the age of 84 from the rare neurological disorder Progressive Supranuclear Palsy on February 17.
He lay in state at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters on Thursday, February 26, and Friday, February 27.
On March 2, his family took him to his hometown of South Carolina, where he lay in state in the rotunda at the South Carolina Statehouse.
On Saturday, March 7, his family held a private homegoing service at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, where his children shared memories of their father’s life and legacy. Thousands of people lined the streets just to say their final goodbyes.
Following the service, Rev. Jackson was buried at Oak Woods Cemetery, where Mayor Harold Washington is also buried. Just as people once lined the streets waving to the funeral procession of Mayor Washington, many watched and waved at the hearse carrying the body of Rev. Jackson to his final resting place.
But not before Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson, and Presidents Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama paid their respects during the Friday, March 6, People’s Celebration of Rev. Jackson’s life and legacy at the House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St.
“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Justice in a too-often unjust world. For Rev. Jesse Jackson, each day was a new opportunity to bring justice in a too-often unjust world,” said Pritzker.
“His ambition, the North Star of his advocacy, was to shape a world where justice is not an anomaly but a constant, where fairness and equity and dignity are so ubiquitous in our lives, they simply flow amidst us like water.
“Rev. Jackson was at once a mighty roaring river, able to create movements and galvanize masses with his words and his passion, and a gentle brook, able to provide guidance and comfort to the beleaguered and the bereaved,” Pritzker said, praising Jackson for giving millions a ray of hope.
But to the world, Pritzker said Jackson was an “ambassador of hope for the oppressed, who met with kings and queens and presidents and dictators and clergy of all the great religions.”
“But here in Chicago, he was our neighbor. He was our friend. We were so proud, we are so proud of you.”
Mayor Johnson said Rev. Jackson will always be remembered as an “incredible oratory champion,” but to the people of Chicago, he was also a strategist, master negotiator and organizer.
Mayor Johnson praised Jackson for not shying away from the painful realities of racism and hatred, saying he had a “God-given ability to bring people in, to encourage them and enlist them in the fight for our collective liberation.”
“It was his instincts that understood that labor and faith were one and the same, as Dr. King prophesied,” Johnson said.
“It was his instincts to stand up against school closures and the shuttering of mental health clinics.
“It was his instincts that led protests down Michigan Avenue when a boy’s life was taken by a police officer and the government decided to cover it up.
“It was his instincts to run in 1984 and 1988, but not in 1992 to make way for somebody in the Deep South and a brother on the South Side [in 2008] to become president of the United States,” Johnson said, referring to former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Former President Biden praised Rev. Jackson’s leadership abilities, saying he believed everyone deserved to be treated equally throughout their lives.
“And while we’ve never fully lived up to the promise, I don’t think things would have been the same had Jesse not been around, because Jesse decided that his life was ensuring that we never fully walk away from it either,” Biden said.
Referring to the toxic atmosphere in Washington, Biden admitted the nation is “in a tough spot.
“We’ve got an administration that doesn’t share any of the values that we have. I don’t think I’m exaggerating a little bit,” Biden said.
But Biden said Rev. Jackson knew “who we were at our best, and he simply refused to let us off the hook as a party, as a nation, or as individuals.”
“And time and again, in triumph and turmoil, with relentless insistence on what is right and just, he helped lead us closer to fulfilling our nation’s promise of restoring the nation’s soul.”
“He used his gifts to influence generations, generations of Americans, and countless elected officials, including presidents, as you see here today. And through his impassioned words on the campaign trail, and through moments of quiet courage, Jesse changed history in ways numerous and profound,” Biden stated.
President Obama praised Rev. Jackson for paving the way for him to become the first Black president of the United States.
Jackson, who ran for the presidency in 1984 and 1988, challenged the Democratic Party to shift its “winner-take-all” primary contests to a proportional delegate system, which later helped open the path for Obama’s historic election.
Obama said Rev. Jackson helped register millions of voters.
“He fought against biases in the criminal justice system. He drew attention to local abuses of power and called folks at the national level to account.”
During the early 1980s, Obama said Rev. Jackson “was delivering that message of change and hope across the globe, freeing hostages from captivity and fighting to end apartheid in South Africa.”
“And then, in 1984, as the powers that be in Washington were rolling back hard-won progress, slashing the social safety net, when more and more folks were getting left behind and greed was being trumpeted as a virtue, he stepped forward once again and said, ‘Send me’.”
Obama said that message of fairness and dignity, of justice and hope is what the Rainbow Coalition was all about.
He also praised Rev. Jackson for his presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988.
“Jesse didn’t just speak to Black folks. He spoke to white folks and Latinos and Asian Americans and the First Americans.
“He spoke to family farmers and environmentalists. He spoke to gay rights activists when nobody was talking to gay rights activists, and blue-collar workers. And he gave them the same message — that they mattered, that their voices and their votes counted.
“He invited them to believe. He invited us to believe in our own power to change America for the better.”
“By the delegate count, Jesse’s two candidacies ultimately came up short, but he paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said, referring not only to his own presidency but also to leaders like former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun.