chicago — Memorial services Honor life The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s work will be expanded beyond Chicago with events in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, the late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson Sr.’s organization announced Thursday.
Jackson, a disciple of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate, He died earlier this week At the age of 84 after fighting A A rare neurological disorder Which affected his ability to move and speak.
Jackson will still lie in repose next week at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago with a public celebration of life and homecoming services, although the dates of the Chicago events have changed. Formal services scheduled for March 1-4 in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, where Jackson was born and raised, have been added.
Rainbow PUSH did not provide further details.
Jackson’s adult children gathered outside the family home in Chicago on Wednesday, saying the funeral service would be a large gathering where everyone would be welcome. They also pledged to continue his decades of advocacy.
“Even though his body is no longer with us, his spirit permeates us and engulfs us, pushing us to keep working,” said Santita Jackson, his oldest child.
In Chicago, a public celebration of life will be held at House of Hope, a 10,000-seat church, on March 6, followed by special homecoming services the next day at Rainbow PUSH, which will be streamed live.
Jackson rose to fame six decades ago as a protégé of King, and joined an organization Voting rights march King drove from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King later sent Jackson to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, an attempt by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to pressure companies to hire black workers. Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was killed.