The rare qualities that distinguished the Rev. Jesse Jackson — his fortitude as a civil rights leader and the love he shared as a mentor, friend and father — were praised repeatedly Friday as his family and a roster of luminaries, including three former U.S. presidents, gathered for his funeral service on Chicago’s South Side.
At the House of Hope megachurch, the crowd chanted Jackson’s famous refrain, “I am! Somebody!” — a declaration of dignity and worth he championed for people of every race and economic standing.
“He paved the road,” former President Barack Obama said, noting Jackson’s role in social change and his impact in proving in the 1980s that a Black presidential candidate could be taken seriously. “His voice called on each of us to be heralds of change, to be messengers of hope, to step forward and say, ‘Send me,’” Obama said, urging people to make an impact in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.
Jackson’s son, Yusef, painted a vivid picture of his father’s commitment to helping those in need. Quoting his father, he said, “I intend to die with my shoes on,” describing Jackson’s refusal to let health problems stop him from aiding people in war-torn Ukraine and Americans facing food insecurity. Yusef also recalled the affection Jackson showed his children and grandchildren and closed by echoing another of his father’s mottos: “Keep hope alive.”
Speakers invoked Jackson’s message of hope while also addressing contemporary politics. Obama observed that “it’s hard to hope” when daily life brings fears and divisions, when some are told they count more than others. Former presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris said she had predicted how a second Trump term might unfold and added, “But what I did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us to get through this.”
Several speakers credited Jackson with laying the groundwork for their careers. Judge Greg Mathis said hearing Jackson declare “I am somebody” 50 years ago changed his life. Mathis first met Jackson as a teenager incarcerated in Detroit; Jackson advised him to go to college. Mathis later worked on Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, served as vice president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and went on to a judgeship and a television career. Recalling Jackson’s encouragement when Mathis got a TV offer, Mathis said Jackson urged him to accept it so he could “spread a message of hope to millions and millions of people.”
Obama remembered watching Jackson’s first presidential debate as a college student and being struck by how Jackson owned the stage. “The message he sent to a 22-year-old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that there wasn’t any place, any room, where we didn’t belong,” Obama said.
One of the most emotional tributes came from NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, a longtime friend who recalled meeting Jackson as a child in Chicago when his family relied on a soup line. Thomas described Jackson bending down, looking him in the eye and delivering the message that transformed him: “You are somebody,” Thomas said, recalling how Jackson’s words countered a society that told him otherwise.