The passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson after an extended bout with progressive supranuclear palsy still has the civil rights community and the world at large mourning. Saturday, Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson Jr., took the stage at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago to talk about his daddy and those who talk about his daddy.
According to Yahoo! News, Jackson Jr. wanted it to be known that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, all of whom spoke at the public memorial, weren’t close enough to his father to be centered at the ceremonies more than his children. At the public service on Friday, a visibly frustrated Jackson was forced to rush his speech after multiple high-profile guests spoke long over schedule for the ceremony, adding extra hours to the event.
“Yesterday I listened for several hours of three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” he said on Saturday.
The viral clip of Jackson Jr.’s speech drew criticism for seeming ungrateful or disrespectful about the former presidents’ attendance. However, he was calling out previous moments in the service where music interrupted his sister Dr. Jacqueline “Jackie” Jackson.
As she spoke at length about her father’s guiding presence in her life and how the roles reversed as she became a caretaker in this last years, Jackson Jr. quickly shut down attempts to play her off the stage like an awards acceptance speech. Jackson Jr. encouraged Dr. Jackson to stay strong and continue with her entire speech.
By the time he took the stage, Jackson Jr. challenged the decisions to proiritize politics over remembering the fullness of his father’s life. If the past presidents can speak in peace, the Jackson children deserve the same respect. Then he went in on the inconvenient truths of the legend’s life and legacy that don’t fit anyone else’s agenda
Jackson Jr. continued,
“He maintained a tense relationship with the political order, not because the presidents were White or Black, but the demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the least of these — those who are disinherited, the damned, the dispossessed, the disrespected — demanded not Democratic or Republican solutions, but demanded a consistent, prophetic voice that at no point in time sold us out as a people.”
“He would have stood against the war in the Gaza. He would have been fighting for the Affordable Care Act. He would be fighting to save the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and challenging the Supreme Court to render a decision in the Clay decision that would strengthen the Congressional Black Caucus and not undermine it.”
We have no doubt that Jackson Jr. and his family are greiving but even in the midst of grief, you might need to get some straightenin’ and he was certain up to the task.
“I am somebodyness is what Jesse Jackson is known for, not the ’84 and ’88 campaign and voter registration. Jesse Jackson’s greatest contribution is not political. It is psychological. Negro, you are better off today than you were when you met this Negro!”
