A titan of civil rights: Remembering Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson died on Tuesday. He was 84.

Here’s what to know about the Chicago-based Baptist minister, political figure and two-time presidential candidate whose soaring oratory made him a central figure in the Civil Rights Movement and national politics for more than six decades.

‘Rev. Jackson belonged to Chicago, and Chicago belonged to him’

A crescendo of voices from the worlds of religion, politics, business, sports and entertainment converged at the South Side’s House of Hope, providing a requiem to the vast reach of the leadership, inspiration and teachings that made the Rev. Jesse Jackson a national civil rights icon.

More than 1,000 people attended the public celebration of life ceremony for Jackson, including former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who were accompanied by former first ladies Jill Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as Gov. JB Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas and Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. Read more here.

• Photos: The public service for the Rev. Jesse Jackson
• Final farewells for Rev. Jesse Jackson put focus on his impact on Black women leaders

Family and closest friends offer one last goodbye

They sent the Rev. Jesse Jackson home the only way it could have been done: with Gospel music, testimony that often brought people to their feet and story after story about a man who rose from humble beginnings to become one of America’s most influential Civil Rights leaders.

The final service in Jackson’s honor, in a packed chapel at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, proved befitting of a human rights advocate who came to be known, simply, as the “country preacher.” Jackson earned that nickname in the years after leaving the Chicago Theological Seminary, while he marched from Selma to Montgomery and through streets in Chicago and far beyond.

Like any good country preacher, Jackson could move people to tears and move them to act. Speakers and performers at his funeral Saturday — a group that included his children, singer Stevie Wonder and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa — came to do both. Read more here.

He advocated for the people. They came in droves to visit him one last time.

Sunlight had only just started to clear the tops of the buildings lining Drexel Boulevard while Marcus Jones stood early Thursday morning across the street from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, gloves and a hat protecting him from the bitter cold. He hadn’t intended to be first in line on the first day of public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson, but there he was, alone at the front.

It was more than two hours before the doors opened, and more than an hour before the procession arrived from the funeral home. Jones had left his house in Calumet City in the dark and arrived not long after 7 a.m., and he’d come “to be a part of history,” he said, and to say goodbye to a man who made him feel something — a mix of pride and gratitude and strength. Read more here.

• Photos: Mourners attend the public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson

‘A political force of nature’

Raised in South Carolina under Jim Crow segregation laws, Jackson became a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. until the Black leader’s 1968 assassination, and he participated with King in the famed 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

In Chicago, Jackson led King’s civil rights group and later established activist and social justice organizations that eventually evolved into the Kenwood-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. The organization became a driving force for social justice and civil rights, especially during the 1980s, as Jackson built a reputation both as a peripatetic champion of the economically and politically downtrodden and as an expert power player who organized boycotts against major companies he felt weren’t hiring minorities or investing in minority communities.

Known for his rhetorical flourishes and his short, catchy and sometimes-rhythmic and rhyming phrases — ideal as sound bites — Jackson sought to instill self-confidence in Black people with his trademark call-and-response celebration of the self that started with “I am somebody.” Another signature line was his anti-drug refrain, “Down with dope, up with hope.” Read more here.

• Family of Rev. Jesse Jackson honors legacy of civil rights icon

South Carolina honors native son the Rev. Jesse Jackson

Flags were lowered to half-staff in South Carolina where Rev. Jesse Jackson, a native son and civil rights icon, became only the second Black man in history to lie in repose inside the state capitol.

People from nearby and far away lined up for blocks to gain entry to the statehouse to view Jackson’s flag-draped casket after his family and members of the South Carolina General Assembly requested he be honored in the state of his birth. Read more here.

• Photos: South Carolina honors the Rev. Jesse Jackson
• Rev. Jesse Jackson to lie in state at the South Carolina State House in Columbia
• House Speaker Mike Johnson denies request for Rev. Jesse Jackson to lie in honor in US Capitol

One of the ‘last great leaders’

Solving problems great and small is how the Rev. Jesse Jackson will be remembered in Chicago and to the world, his friends and neighbors said.

Tributes from across the city and country poured in Tuesday, from across all walks of life. He was remembered for his commitment to civil rights and “generous” personality. His family, meanwhile, called Jackson in a news release a “servant leader” who championed the oppressed, voiceless and overlooked around the world. Read more here.

• Neighbors remember Rev. Jesse Jackson as a ‘quiet reminder that greatness can live right next to you’

Minister, civil rights advocate, politician and social justice proponent

“His legacy is a profound leadership that aided in moving America forward and aided in addressing the question of racism and discrimination,” said U.S. Rep Maxine Waters about Jackson’s legacy.

“It was Jesse Jackson’s leadership, along with other greats that really created change, and the movement toward opening up America to all.”

As the world mourns his passing, here’s a look at Jackson’s remarkable life. Read more here.

• Editorial: The Rev. Jesse Jackson was a formidable Chicago activist and achiever

‘A giant of the civil rights movement’

Rev. Jesse Jackson’s family and closest friends offer one last goodbye

Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson ordered public buildings across the city and state to fly flags at half-staff in honor of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died at 84 after rising from an upstart Chicago organizer to a national leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

Their announcements joined messages from political leaders across Illinois who were mourning Jackson’s death and nodding to the decades-long movement he championed after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his mentor.

Johnson, an ally of the Jacksons, wrote a fulsome tribute that nodded to Jackson’s ascent in Chicago, from building up the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization to founding the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Read more here.

• President Trump praises late Rev. Jesse Jackson as ‘good man’ as he claims he disliked Barack Obama

A titan of civil rights remembered.

An advanced look at tomorrow's front page, featuring the Rev. Jesse Jackson. pic.twitter.com/xVjnTCOqxM

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) February 18, 2026