By Hamil R. Harris
(Trice Edney Wire) – The 10,000-seat House of Hope was filled with lawmakers as people from all walks of life came to pay their final respects to the Rev. Jesse Lewis Jackson.
Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden offered tributes to Jackson, along with Vice-President Kamala Harris, Basketball great Isaiah Thomas, the Rev. Al Sharpton and TV Judge Greg Mathis.
And that power-packed lineup was on the day before the final and private funeral at the Rainbow/PUSH headquarters where each of his children spoke as well as the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, among civil rights leaders and ministers.
“My mother talks about how he has such remarkable range as a person. He would kneel and touch the poorest children, and then he stood to challenge the most powerful presidents and dictators,” said his son, Yusef Jackson. “And from the library that he opened and set free in Greenville, South Carolina, to the boardrooms of Wall Street, where he encouraged inclusion in the Oval Office and the White House, he opened doors. He kicked them down when necessary, so that others were no longer locked out.”
Tears and laughter filled the sanctuary of the Brookland Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., the House of Hope in Chicago and the Rainbow/Push headquarters. His widow, Mrs. Jacqueline Jackson had told family members that she didn’t want a sad funeral, but rather a celebration of her husband’s life. A celebration it was as Stevie Wonder rocked the house Saturday morning with “I’ll Be Loving You Always.” His daughter, Santita Jackson, also sang a soulful rendition of “Troubles of This World” during the private service.
Rev. Jackson’s body had laid in state in the South Carolina Capitol, his home state, after which the first funeral was there on Thursday; followed by the public funeral on Friday and the private funeral on Saturday.
All of the services went for hours. Rev. James Meeks, the former pastor of the House of Hope, tried to keep the public service to three hours, but it went so long that the last speaker Rev. Jamal Bryant, concluded around 5:30 pm, more than five hours after the Noon time start. Thanks to performers like Jennifer Hudson, who sang Sam Cooke’s, “A Change is Going to Come,” Opel Staples, and Hezekiah Walker who played “Oh Happy Day”, it was truly festive.
Among other highlights of the public service came when Presidents Obama, Biden and Clinton spoke.
President Obama said that he was inspired by Jackson because,” he invited us to believe in our own power. He changed America for the better.”
He also credited Jackson’s 1984 and ’88 presidential races for giving people the hope that ultimately got him elected.
“He paved the road for so many others to follow. Doug Wilder became the first elected black governor, Carol Moseley Braun went to the U.S. Senate,” Obama said. “Because of his courage. His audacity. Yes! That two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago’s South Side, would even be taken seriously. as a candidate for the presidential nomination.”
President Biden agreed. “How fortunate we were. Jesse Jackson answered that call. What a great debt we owe to him. May God bless Reverend Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace. God bless him.”
President Bill Clinton told a humorous but deeply touching story. “When the Congress was trying to run me out, and I was in that big impeachment fight, Jesse called me one night in the White House. I thought he was calling me. He said, I don’t want to talk to you. I want you to go get Chelsea. He called me to talk to my daughter, to make sure she had her head in the game.”
He added, “And he prayed with her on the phone. And…You know, a lot of people, it would never even have occurred to them to do that…This guy lived a big life. He lived with his head and with his heart.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Reverend Jackson was impatient. He did not waste his time waiting. Even when the doors in front of him were barred and bolted, even if those on the other side hesitated or even ignored him, he always devised a way through. “
Jesse Jackson was indeed one of the most effective community and political organizers in modern history. A large part of that was his love for people from every walk of life, which ultimately became the Rainbow Coalition.
Yusef Jackson told the audience that he was torn between his grief and his faith. “The scripture that says, weeping may endure for night, but joy comes in the morning, sits heavily in my belly,” he said “I find myself balancing the sorrow of the dark night, comforting my kids and answering their questions about the loss of life, and the cycle of life, and managing my own personal grief against God’s promise.”
Jesse Jackson Jr., deeply emotional, poured out. “Who was Jesse Jackson? To the political class that took up most of the time, Dad was a stranger awaiting a return phone call. Reminding the political class of the urgency of the hour. That’s who my daddy was.”
Bishop Jamal Bryant was the last speaker of the public funeral day. He gave thanks for the strong women who were Rev. Jackson’s foot soldiers along the way. “I want to pause and thank God for his sister disciples in Donna Brazile, and for a sister, Minyon Moore, and Leah Daughtry, because he understood you ain’t gonna go far unless you take strong Black women with you.”
On Saturday, Marc Morial. President and CEO of the National Urban League continued the honors. “Reverend Jesse Jackson took a moment of disrespect. and shaped it into a movement for respect. From that moment of disrespect, the Jackson candidacy for president in 1984 was born. And let the record show that that campaign, and that candidacy, played a significant role in beginning to reshape American politics.”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, said, “This year, we must send a different message in November, the power comes through the black community, the power was built by Reverend Jackson. The strength is in this room, that stick together, stay together, fight together, peace and power.”
His son, Rep. Jonathan Jackson was at his best, “My father tried to let every child know that he is somebody. My father wanted to make sure that the world he was born into would be better than the world he was leaving.”
He brought the audience to their feet.
“He tried to make through crooked ways straight! And I want the world to know that my father believed in love! He believed in the dignity of all human beings! And he believed that just because You were born in the slum; the slum was not born in you! So, for the children on the reservations, in the boroughs, in the ghettos, he was speaking to you. In fact, my father believed in America more than America believed in itself!”
Rep. Jackson ended his speech, recalling the motto, “Run Jesse Run!” but now, according to Christian faith, it will be “Rise, Jesse, Rise!”
