Jesse Jackson funeral in Chicago: Ex-presidents Obama, Biden, Clinton in attendance

CHICAGO – The funeral services for civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson started in Chicago on Friday with “The People’s Celebration.”

Several big names were in attendance, including former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, along with former First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

What we know:

The Friday services were held at the House of Hope on Chicago’s South Side beginning at 11 a.m. There will be open, general admission seating. Those wishing to attend are asked to arrive early. Doors will opened at 9 a.m. to the public. The full service is being streamed in the media player at the top of this story.

House of Hope is located at 752 E. 114th St. in Chicago.

Other speakers will include Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, award-winning singer, actress, and television host Jennifer Hudson, and gospel legends Bebe Winans, and Pastor Marvin Winans.

The services will continue on Saturday with the “Homegoing Celebration of Life” at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Headquarters, located at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago. Services begin at 10 a.m.

Grammy Award-winning gospel artists Marvin Sapp and Hezekiah Walker, along with R&B singer Terisa Griffin will perform.

The final services come after several days of celebrations and tributes for Jackson, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 84. Crowds of mourners were able to pay their respects to Jackson during services in Chicago, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. in recent days.

The backstory:

Jackson was a longtime civil rights leader and ran for president twice in the 1980s. He had been battling a neurodegenerative disorder known as progressive supranuclear palsy for over a decade. He was initially treated for Parkinson’s syndrome, but his PSP diagnosis was confirmed last April.

Memorial services for Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.

For decades, he stood on the front lines of change preaching hope, demanding justice, and lifting up generations.
 Today, Chicago remembers reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. not only as a civil rights icon, but as a father, a pastor, and a man whose faith never wavered. 

He was a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the early 1970s to form Operation PUSH, initially named People United to Save Humanity, in Chicago. In the 1980s, he also founded the National Rainbow Coalition, an organization dedicated to uniting people of all races and backgrounds.

The two groups later merged to become the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, with aims ranging from promoting minority hiring in corporate America to leading voter registration drives in communities of color.