Three former presidents will converge on Chicago's Far South Side today for the public funeral of Rev. Jesse Jackson, turning the House of Hope church into a gathering place for some of the most prominent figures in Democratic Party history.
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden are all expected at the service, along with former First Lady Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The ceremony, billed as "The People's Celebration," begins at 11 a.m. at 752 E. 114th St., with doors opening to the public at 9 a.m.
According to CBS News, Jackson died on February 17 at the age of 84 after a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy. He was born in 1941 and worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before King was killed. Jackson spent decades in Chicago as a fixture of the civil rights establishment, advocating for what he described as equal rights, social equity, and business equity in the city.
The speaker list reads like a roster of progressive power. According to the Jackson family, notable speakers include:
Performers include Jennifer Hudson, gospel singer Bebe Winans, and Pastor Marvin Winans. The service will be led by Dr. Charles Jenkins, Rev. James T. Meeks, and Pastor Charlie Dates, whose church is hosting the event.
It is a lineup that tells you exactly what Jackson's legacy became: less a continuation of King's moral movement and more a permanent infrastructure of Democratic coalition politics. That three former Democratic presidents would attend, while no comparable figures from across the aisle appear on the program, captures the trajectory Jackson charted over the latter half of his career.
Those closest to the planning describe a service designed for emotion. Dr. Charles Jenkins, who is leading the homegoing, spoke about his relationship with Jackson:
"Rev. Jackson treated me like a son. I met him almost 30 years ago."
Jenkins also invoked one of Jackson's own phrases to describe the sense of loss:
"There's a line that he used. There's a hole where my heart used to be. And I think so many people feel that."
Pastor Charlie Dates, Jackson's former pastor, recalled their first encounter. He was 17 years old, invited to speak at a King breakfast, and called it the largest platform he had ever been given at that point. Dates urged Chicagoans to show up in person rather than watch from home:
"Don't let this just be a moment you watch on television or stream. Show up. We will never have another moment to celebrate such a world-changing leader like this one."
Both Jenkins and Dates expect a full house.
There is no question that Jesse Jackson occupied a significant place in American public life for more than half a century. His early work alongside King placed him at the center of a movement that changed the country. That chapter of his life commands genuine respect.
What followed was more complicated. Jackson became one of the architects of a style of racial politics that treated grievance as currency and proximity to power as the reward. Rainbow PUSH, his Chicago-based organization, became less a civil rights engine and more a pressure machine, leveraging corporate guilt into concessions and political access. His two presidential campaigns, in 1984 and 1988, cemented the model that every Democratic primary would need to run through identity coalition gatekeepers.
The Democratic Party that shows up today in Chicago owes a great deal of its current structure to Jackson's influence. The emphasis on racial group identity over individual aspiration. The instinct to frame every policy debate in terms of systemic oppression. The belief that institutions owe particular communities not just fairness but outcomes. These are Jackson's fingerprints on the modern left.
That Obama, Clinton, and Biden all felt compelled to attend tells you something about the debts the party still acknowledges. These are not just personal tributes. They are institutional ones.
The setting matters. Chicago, a city governed for generations by the progressive coalition Jackson helped build, is hosting a funeral for one of its patron saints while grappling with the consequences of exactly the politics he championed. Brandon Johnson, the city's mayor and a listed speaker at today's service, presides over a city where crime, fiscal instability, and an illegal immigration crisis have tested progressive governance to its breaking point.
Jackson lay in honor at Rainbow PUSH headquarters for two days last week before traveling to South Carolina, his birth state, to lie in state at the South Carolina Capitol. A private homegoing and celebration of life is scheduled for Saturday at Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters.
Today's public service will be livestreamed starting at 10 a.m. CT.
The Democrats will eulogize a man who helped make them what they are. Whether that is a boast or a confession depends entirely on where you're standing.