On Friday, Chicago will host a \u201cpeople\u2019s celebration<\/a>\u201d of Jackson, followed by a homegoing service Saturday, capping off a series of commemorations of the titan of U.S. politics, Civil Rights Movement leader, and Democratic Party power player who died in February at 84.<\/p>\n Jackson was a complicated figure who meant the world to so many Black Americans. He provided the first proof of concept that a Black presidential candidate could mobilize voters nationwide when he competed in Democratic primaries for president in the 1980s, a model that was adapted and modernized by the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama.<\/p>\n But in Chicago and other cities, Jackson is being celebrated not just as a charismatic leader and effective organizer, but as a man who nurtured, mentored, and developed multiple generations of Black leaders.<\/p>\n Now, as people grieve, those who worked directly with Jackson are reflecting not only on the coalition he created as the founder of the human and civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH, but also on how he influenced them, where he came up short, and who will fill his shoes.<\/p>\n Taylor often drives by the Rainbow PUSH headquarters, not far from her office.<\/p>\n Recently, she\u2019s watched mourners gather there, people standing together to pay their respects to Jackson, who established the organization in 1996, and led it until 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just \u2014 it\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d said Taylor, 50. \u201cIt\u2019s surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was already a hole when he got sick,\u201d she added, referring to Jackson\u2019s health problems in recent years. \u201cBut we just thought that he would bounce back. Nobody wants their heroes to die. We want them to live forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson\u2019s influence on leaders in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n David Johns, 44, is the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based group that focuses on the needs and experiences of Black LGBTQ Americans.<\/p>\n He met Jackson around 2007. What Johns remembers most is that Jackson made room for him and other young leaders. At monthly gatherings of Black-led organizations in Washington, when Jackson attended, he ensured that younger advocates were heard \u2014 \u201cnot in a performative way,\u201d Johns said, \u201cbut to ensure that our perspectives were included in not only the conversation, but also the analysis and the subsequent action.\u201d<\/p>\n Johns often returns to Jackson\u2019s 1984 Democratic National Convention speech<\/a>, in which he described the U.S. as a richly textured piece of fabric.<\/p>\n \u201cThe white, the Hispanic, the Black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt,\u201d declared Jackson, credited as the first person<\/a> to say \u201cgay\u201d or \u201clesbian\u201d in a major convention speech.<\/p>\n Johns told Capital B, \u201cI\u2019ve always appreciated, in my work, that there should be much more room for intersectional approaches to how we all live this thing called life.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson\u2019s influence in South Carolina, his home state The remains of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson are brought to the South Carolina State House via a caisson on March 2. (Joshua Boucher\/The State\/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Those who encountered Jackson\u2019s movement in the 1980s saw the roots of the organizing that would become the \u201crainbow coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence Moore, 70, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina, and is the chair of the social justice nonprofit Carolina for All Education Foundation, first met Jackson in 1976, as a college student, when Jackson was eyeing the White House. By 1988, Moore was helping to coordinate Jackson\u2019s presidential campaign efforts in the Palmetto State.<\/p>\n \u201cJackson created more of a movement, where people believe in a vision,\u201d Moore said of Rainbow PUSH, describing what was less a political campaign than an unbreakable affiliation. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a \u2018former\u2019 Jackson supporter. Everybody I know who supports Jackson, it\u2019s a lifetime thing.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Moore stood among thousands who had gathered in Columbia to honor Jackson in his home state. A procession marched a mile from the funeral home to the State House. Andrew Young, an early civil rights leader who once served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was there, along with other longtime allies.<\/p>\n Moore told Capital B that Rainbow PUSH built something lasting \u2014 a \u201cfamily, a nation of people who believe in humanity and believe in one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson\u2019s influence on Obama<\/p>\n When Obama launched his presidential campaign in 2007, he followed some of Jackson\u2019s blueprint for building power by explicitly courting a multiracial, cross-movement alliance.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s campaign modernized the strategy, pairing it with digital organizing and a new generation of activists. But the underlying logic was familiar: join together Black voters, young people, labor activists, immigrants, LGBTQ Americans, progressive white Americans, and more under a shared political narrative.<\/p>\n At times, the relationship frayed, including in 2008, when Jackson made crude remarks about Obama during his presidential campaign. Obama accepted Jackson\u2019s apology<\/a>, brushing aside the episode as the race intensified.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was human,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t deny that he stood up for Black children, Black people, Black communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Months later, when the Illinois Democrat won the White House and delivered his victory speech in Chicago\u2019s Grant Park, Jackson stood in the crowd, visibly moved and emotional \u2014 a civil rights veteran watching a barrier fall after decades of struggle.<\/p>\n Can Jackson\u2019s movement survive without him?<\/p>\n Jackson still appears at the top of the masthead of Rainbow PUSH, on the organization\u2019s website, listed as founder emeritus. Under him appears one of his sons, Yusef D. Jackson, listed as the chief operating officer of the organization.<\/p>\n In a statement issued the day Jackson died, Rainbow PUSH said, \u201cHis legacy will continue to inspire future generations through the tireless, dedicated work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an organization rooted in the progressive fight for social change.\u201d<\/p>\n But on the day of the Chicago funeral, the question many who knew him are now asking is what it will take to sustain the organization\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Ameshia Cross, a Chicago native and political analyst, grew up seeing Rainbow PUSH as a fixture of South Side life. \u201cYou can\u2019t not know about Rainbow PUSH in Chicago,\u201d she told Capital B. As an adult, she later volunteered and worked with the organization, hosting Affordable Care Act enrollment drives and partnering on education initiatives.<\/p>\n To Cross, the coalition\u2019s mission feels as relevant as ever.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we saw even before this administration was a pitting of Black Americans and Latinos against each other,\u201d Cross said. \u201cI see Rainbow PUSH as a vision of unification, one that stands as a beacon and a pillar,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Cross recalled being a college student when Jackson pushed her to speak before thousands of people at a Rainbow PUSH event.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a man who saw the importance of me being encouraged to speak in front of thousands of people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt mattered to me to have him look at me as somebody who could do something.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore said that those who want to keep Jackson\u2019s legacy alive must act. \u201cWe the people, now, need to make sure that we stand up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Back in Chicago, Taylor has been thinking about that responsibility, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just praying that we take Jackson\u2019s lessons and apply them to our own lives, and create more Jacksons \u2014 more people who will stand up for our communities and do what\u2019s right, even when it\u2019s uncomfortable,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat would he tell us? To keep hope alive.\u201d<\/p>\n The post As Chicago Celebrates Jesse Jackson\u2019s Life, Those He Inspired Confront What\u2019s Next<\/a> appeared first on Capital B News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeanette Taylor, the alderwoman of Chicago\u2019s 20th Ward, first met the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 2012. At the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":636099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[11744,271023,960,271022,5386,1818,271021,23394,70004,190645],"class_list":["post-636098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-barack-obama","tag-capital-b","tag-chicago","tag-david-johns","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jeanette-taylor","tag-jesse-jackson","tag-presidential-campaign","tag-rainbow-push"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116181727272550341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/507f0175012fa9febff1681ff2496b10.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n