Jesse Jackson Chicago Funeral: Obama, Biden, Clinton to Attend

Three former presidents, a sitting mayor and governor, business executives, clergy members and gospel singers gathered on Friday morning on the South Side of Chicago at a public memorial service for the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The service on Friday, by turns celebratory and solemn, drew thousands of Chicagoans and capped two weeks of memorials to Mr. Jackson, whose oratory and activism arguing for racial equality and opportunity made him one of the most powerful civil rights figures of his time.

The Jackson family welcomed three of the four living former U.S. presidents, who sat together in the front row: Barack Obama, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Bill Clinton. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jill Biden, the former first lady, also attended.

Dozens of speakers examined Mr. Jackson’s legacy, his missteps, his decades of work that inspired other leaders and helped shape a city. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, who has called Mr. Jackson a beloved mentor, praised him for his ability not just to deliver speeches, but to reel in the reluctant. “To the people in Chicago, we knew him as a brilliant strategist, a master negotiator, an organizing savant,” Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Obama recalled watching Mr. Jackson on the debate stage during his run for president in 1984. It was Mr. Jackson, he said, who helped draw him to Chicago.

“He paved the road for so many others to follow,” he said. “It was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young Black senator from Chicago’s South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate of the presidential nomination.”

Mr. Obama’s speech was followed by a rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come,” by Jennifer Hudson, who grew up in Chicago.

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois hailed Mr. Jackson for his work, while acknowledging the difficulty of memorializing “a man who always loomed so large above us.”

“Here in Chicago, he was our neighbor,” he said, prompting shouts and applause from the crowd, adding: “Reverend Jackson belonged to Chicago, and Chicago belonged to him.”

One of Mr. Jackson’s sons, Yusef, spoke of his father’s expansive life, one that was longer than Mr. Jackson ever expected.

“The reverend’s mind and will was strong even as his body failed him,” he said, vowing that his father’s social justice advocacy organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, would continue even after his death. “His legacy will not be carried forward by family alone.”

Mr. Jackson’s body lay in repose for two days last week in Chicago at the headquarters of the coalition and again in Columbia, S.C., on Monday, after arriving at the statehouse on a horse-drawn caisson.

The Jackson family chose House of Hope, an arena that seats 10,000 people in the Pullman neighborhood, for Mr. Jackson’s “public homegoing,” a ceremony of speeches and song to celebrate his life. Mr. Jackson died last month at his Chicago home at 84, after suffering from a neurodegenerative condition that limited his speech and mobility.

For hours before the service, the front section of the arena became a glad-handing who’s-who of Chicago civic life. Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, sat next to the Rev. Al Sharpton; Rod Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois, posed for pictures with fans.

Outside the arena, admirers took shuttle buses to the service, or parked more than a mile away and walked.

Cheryl Gordon, a 63-year-old real estate broker from Chicago, said she held strong memories of Mr. Jackson from when she was a young girl.

“I do remember the speeches, and him empowering us that we could be anything as young, Black children,” she said. “That we could be anything that we wanted and didn’t have to work for anybody.”

Chicago was Mr. Jackson’s adopted hometown, the place where he spent most of his life. He first settled in Chicago in his 20s to lead the city’s chapter of Operation Breadbasket, a national economic development campaign. For decades, from his perch at Rainbow PUSH, Mr. Jackson drew mayoral candidates, presidential hopefuls and local leaders to the organization’s famed Saturday forums.

Hundreds of people who knew Mr. Jackson personally stood in line last week at Rainbow PUSH to pay their respects, bringing flowers and mementos that they left outside. Mr. Jackson’s children stood alongside his casket and shook hands with the mourners, some of whom had waited for hours before it was their turn to enter.

A smaller service for invited guests is scheduled for Saturday at Rainbow PUSH headquarters in Chicago.

Robert Chiarito contributed reporting.

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