By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@ReutersPhoto.
The civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. is being celebrated and remembered at The People’s Celebration, his funeral service at the House of Hope on the Far South Side of Chicago.
Jackson died on 17 February 2026 at the age of 84 following a battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a condition similar to Parkinson’s disease.
Jackson, a protege of Martin Luther King and two-time presidential candidate who led the civil rights movement for decades.
Several prominent people have been speaking at his memorial service, including former presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, as well as former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Musical tributes from singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, along with gospel artists Marvin Winans and BeBe Winans.
Obama remembered him as a “born leader” who “rose above despair” to advocate for civil rights. He recounted the accomplishments and hardships the reverend overcame and how his legacy “inspired them to take a harder path.”
Obama continued to say: “He was a born leader, an athlete, a talker, he knew how to talk, star quarter back, student body president.
“He could have succeeded within the confines that were determined for him and had a successful life.”
But, Obama goes on, “he instinctively understood that individual success meant nothing unless everybody was free”.
Biden followed Obama in paying tribute to Jackson.
“Jesse was dedicated with every fibre in his being to redeeming the soul of America,” the former US president said.
Biden added that he and Jackson disagreed at times, but he admired his “passion, the courage of his convictions”. You know, his courage inspired a hell of a lot of us.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson took a moment during his remarks to relate a funny recent memory of Jackson.
“Rev. Jackson may have been the most competitive individual I had ever met,” Johnson told the crowd.
He said a few years ago he had met with Jackson at a church on the West Side.
“At the time, Lamar Jackson was on his way to becoming the MVP of the National Football League,” the mayor recalled, “and I looked at Reverend and I said, ‘Now there’s a Jackson that’s really making a name for himself.’ And he, you know, Reverend did not like that, and he looked at me and he said, ‘You know, I played that position.'”
“And he said, ‘You know I was better than Lamar Jackson,'” Johnson recalled. “True story, he said, ‘He might be taller, faster and stronger, but I’m better than him.”
Jackson’s son, Yusef, who is one of the civil rights leader’s six children, took to the stage to pay tribute to his father.
He told the crowd his dad “occupied many spaces in our lives, in this nation and in the world”.
“For many of us, our beloved leader. For others, our brother. For so, so many – our friend.”
He added: “His body of work spans more than six decades, so vast that no single homegoing service can fully capture it – but it’s both an honour and a heavy responsibility to try.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is also expected to deliver keynote address at the funeral at the request of the Jackson family.
Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, on Oct. 8, 1941. His mother, Helen Burns Struggs, was 16 and unmarried and gave him the name Jesse Burns. In his teenage years, his mother married Charles Jackson, and Jackson took his new stepfather’s surname.
Jackson is survived by five children with his wife of more than 60 years, Jacqueline, another daughter, and countless figures who were inspired by his leadership.