Chicago bishop, Voorhees president respond to death of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson

[Episcopal News Service] Chicago Bishop Paula Clark and the president of Voorhees University have released statements honoring the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Baptist minister and politician who became one of the most prominent civil rights leaders of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He died Feb. 17 at 84 in Chicago, Illinois.

“We honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering voice for justice, equality and human dignity,” Ronnie Hopkins, president of Voorhees University, said in a Feb. 17 statement posted to Facebook. “Rev. Jackson dedicated his life to lifting up the marginalized, standing courageously for civil rights and expanding the promise of freedom for all.”

Voorhees University is one of The Episcopal Church’s two historically Black colleges. It is in South Carolina, where Jackson was born in 1941.

Jackson’s activism, with a vision of a “rainbow coalition” of marginalized communities, spanned decades. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, he participated in demonstrations alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March in Alabama. When he was a divinity student at Chicago Theological Seminary, he led a student rally supporting King’s activism. After graduating, Jackson worked alongside King full time while working for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Jackson also served as an organizer with the Congress of Racial Equality.

In 1962, Jackson married Jacqueline “Jackie” Brown Jackson. They had five children, including politicians Jesse Jr. and Jonathan Jackson, and Santita Jackson, a singer and political commentator.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. Jackson had served as a special envoy to Africa for the Clinton administration.

Jackson was among more than 200 people, including Episcopalians, who were arrested and detained in 2021 while rallying for the Poor People’s Campaign in favor of legislation that would benefit disenfranchised voters and low-income Americans.

For more than 50 years, Jackson led the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an international nonprofit he founded in 1966 that advocates for economic, educational and social justice. He stepped down from the coalition in 2023, and his son, Yusuf Jackson, now serves as its CEO.

“The Rev. Jackson leaves a profound legacy of leadership and a passionate commitment to justice and the welfare of all people – one that continues to inspire and encourage all who walk in his formidable footsteps,” Clark said in a Feb. 17 statement posted to the Diocese of Chicago’s website and Facebook page.

“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Chicago, I extend our deepest sympathies to Mrs. Jacqueline Jackson, his children, his family, his friends and the many diverse communities who mourn his death. We will be praying with and for them during this tender time.”