Jesse Jackson’s family plans memorials, calls for unity and warns ‘do not bring your politics’

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Plans for the funeral and public observances for Reverend Jesse L Jackson Sr, the veteran civil rights activist who died at age 84 this week, have begun to take shape as family and community leaders prepare to honor his life and legacy.

Jackson, a prominent figure in the US civil rights movement and a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, passed away on February 17 at his home in Chicago after a long illness, his family said.

On February 18, Jackson's family revealed preliminary funeral plans for the longtime activist, who died following a lengthy illness with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disease that causes a decline similar to Parkinson's disease but at an accelerated rate.

Jesse Jackson funeral services open to all attendees

Speaking in Chicago on February 18, Jackson's family announced that services to honor Jackson will begin "in earnest" next week.

The family said it will do its best to accommodate everyone attending the services, which they expect to be "great gathering meetings," the term Reverend Jackson used for funerals, his son Jesse Jackson Jr said on February 18. "Dad would have wanted us to have a great meeting to discuss our differences, to find ways of moving forward and moving together, and if his life becomes a turning point in our national political discourse, amen," Jackson Jr said.

Anyone is invited to gather in remembrance of Jackson, his family said. However, their message included a condition for attendees: "Do not bring your politics" to the memorials out of respect for Jackson.

"Come respectful and come to say thank you, but these homegoing services are welcome to all, Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing, because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American," Jackson Jr said. 

Chicago to host Jesse Jackson funeral services

According to announcements from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the organization Jackson founded and led for more than 50 years, funeral services will begin next week at the group’s Chicago headquarters.

Jackson’s body will lie in state there, allowing members of the public to pay their respects. Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, but Chicago always represented a second home for him.

At the time of his death, he lived in Chicago's South Shore and had contributed decades of local leadership to civil rights causes. Chicago remained a home base for Jackson throughout his local and national activist career and was the site of multiple efforts he spearheaded to call out corporations and governments for diversity failures.