Politics
‘No Fight Too Small Nor Too Big’: Jesse Jackson Memorial Draws 3 Former Presidents, Thousands of Attendees
Video: Former President Barack Obama speaks at a memorial service for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson on March 6, 2026. (WTTW News)
Former President Barack Obama believed the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. never needed to become the civil rights icon and champion he was in order to have a successful life.
Jackson was a “born leader,” Obama said, and excelled as a student body president and star quarterback while in high school in South Carolina in the 1950s. He could have flourished and triumphed had he followed those paths.
“He could have succeeded within the confines that were determined for him,” Obama said Friday. “But like so many of his generation, so many extraordinary civil rights leaders in the late ’50s and ’60s … he instinctively understood that individual success meant nothing unless everybody was free.”
Obama was among former presidents, star singers and thousands more gathered on Chicago’s South Side Friday to honor Jackson's life and memory.
Friday’s ceremony, billed as a “homegoing service” at the 10,000-seat House of Hope arena, lasted more than five hours and served as a celebration of Jackson’s life and achievements with singing, dancing, prayer and numerous speakers who reflected on the many ways Jackson changed and impacted their lives.
Obama joined former Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton at the star-studded celebration, along with former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Grammy-winner Jennifer Hudson.
Other notable attendees included the Rev. Al Sharpton, NBA Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas, Colombian President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego and Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts.
Scores of attendees began lining up outside hours before the celebration began Friday morning. Inside, vendors sold pins with Jackson’s 1984 presidential slogan and hoodies with his “I Am Somebody” mantra, which was repeated and chanted by speakers and the crowd numerous times throughout the event.
People gather before the Public Homegoing Service for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the House of Hope in Chicago, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh)
“We thank you that there was no fight too small nor too big that he was unwilling to take on to level the playing field of a country that has never played fair,” the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church said. “We thank you that while some proclaim ‘Make America Great Again,’ Jesse Lewis Jackson fought to make America achieve the greatness that she promised but always fell short of.”
The event honoring the protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate follows memorial services that drew large crowds in Chicago and South Carolina, where the civil rights leader was born.
Jackson died last month at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak. Family members said he continued coming into the office until last year and communicated through hand signals. His final public appearances included the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
It was Jackson’s first presidential run, as well as Harold Washington’s mayoral run in the early 1980s, that inspired Obama to move to Chicago, he said. While Jackson’s campaign came up short, Obama said the efforts paved the road for so many others to follow — himself included.
“He invited us to believe in our own power, and changed America for the better,” Obama 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 for the presidential nomination.”
Bill Clinton said Jackson made him a better president. “He knew change came from the inside out," Clinton said.
Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, who runs the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, recalled how his father carried a well-worn Bible but also showed his faith by showing up to picket lines.
“He lived a revolutionary Christian faith rooted in justice, nonviolence and the moral righteousness,” Yusef Jackson said Friday. “He was deeply involved in the political struggles of his time, but his gift was that he could rise above them. It’s not about the left wing or the right wing. It takes two wings to fly. For him, the goal was always the moral center.”
From left, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Jill Biden, and former President Joe Biden attend the Public Homegoing Service for Rev. Jesse Jackson at the House of Hope in Chicago, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)
Jesse Jackson’s pursuits were countless, taking him to all corners of the globe: advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, health care, job opportunities and education. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.
Johnson in his remarks said Jesse Jackson would be remembered as an “incredible oratory champion,” but to the people of Chicago, we knew him as a “brilliant strategist, a master negotiator and an organizing savant.”
“He didn’t shy away from the painful realities of racism and hatred,” Johnson said, “but he had a God-given ability to bring people in, to encourage them in and to enlist them into the fight of our collective liberation.”
Jesse Jackson’s services in Chicago and South Carolina drew civic leaders, school groups and everyday people who said they were touched by Jackson’s work, from scholarship programs to advocating for people who are incarcerated. Several states flew flags at half-staff in his honor.
“Rev. Jackson was, at once, a mighty roaring river — able to create movements and galvanize the masses with his words and the passion,” Pritzker said, “and a gentle brook, able to provide guidance and comfort.”
To the world, Jesse Jackson was an “ambassador of hope to the oppressed,” Pritzker said, but in Chicago “he was our neighbor, he was our friend.”
“While we know that we shared him with the whole world, Rev. Jackson belonged to Chicago, and Chicago belonged to him,” the governor said. “He was ours and we were his.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
