AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All throughout the day, people have been paying their respects to the late Reverend Jesse Jackson at his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago. The civil rights leader was 84 when he died just over a week ago, and today was the beginning of several days of remembrances from Chicago to South Carolina to Washington, D.C., and back to Chicago. NPR’s Cheryl Corley has more.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: It’s been both a day of public mourning and celebration that began early with an honor guard greeting the hearse that brought Jackson’s body to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s building. The pillars are draped in purple bunting. And while Jackson’s relatives climbed the stairs to enter the building, a crowd of people waiting to pay their respects watched. Pam Hooks was at the front of the line.
PAM HOOKS: I flew to Chicago yesterday from Florida just to participate and show my respects to Reverend Jackson.
CORLEY: Hooks, a retired teacher, lives in Cocoa, Florida. She said she would fly back home later in the day, but she had to make time to honor Jesse Jackson.
HOOKS: The year that I graduated from high school, which was 1984, is the year that Reverend Jackson ran for president. So that connection was there from the beginning.
CORLEY: Toni Straight stood behind Hooks. The Chicago resident said Jackson often visited her church and had a huge impact when it came to voter registration, to helping the community and to letting people know what they could do themselves to bring about change. And Straight said she simply loved his affirmations.
TONI STRAIGHT: I am somebody. Keep hope alive, and I just had to instill within our kids that, no matter what the situation is, you are somebody, your voice matter.
CORLEY: For Curtis Lawrence, Jackson was history walking. A retired journalist and professor, Lawrence met Jackson early, when he stressed the importance of economic pariry.
CURTIS LAWRENCE: And he was talking about the grocery store boycotts. This was in the ’70s. And so all these years, I just had this image of this, you know, huge, larger-than-life figure. And so years later, I’m covering this man, and I tell people, a part of me is also that 12-year-old kid, remembering him, telling everybody that they could be somebody, too.
PAT CRENSHAW: Also he officiated my wedding in 1972, right here.
CORLEY: Pat Crenshaw also worked with Jesse Jackson and those Rainbow/PUSH grocery store boycotts, an effort to put more Black products on the shelves.
So you were very close to him?
CRENSHAW: Yes, yes.
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CORLEY: In the PUSH auditorium, a huge picture of Jackson’s face sat on one side of the room. On the other, a screen featured a cavalcade of photos of Jackson’s life. In the center an open casket covered by glass. It was positioned just right, in front of the stage where Jackson had stood so often preaching. Jackson’s sons and daughters greeted mourners, and there were dignitaries, too, including Congressman Bobby Rush, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who says it’s ironic that Jackson passed during Black History Month.
AL SHARPTON: On the hundredth anniversary of Black History Month – and it means from now on, every Black History Month, there’ll be a Jesse Jackson day.
CORLEY: Sharpton says now in an era when there’s so much political contention and a rollback of the civil rights advances that Jackson championed, his life is a good example of how to resist and work to make life better. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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