Celebration of life for Jesse Jackson to draw former presidents and Grammy-winning artists [View all]

Source: AP

By SOPHIA TAREEN
Updated 8:24 AM CST, March 6, 2026

CHICAGO (AP) — Three former U.S. presidents, Grammy-winning artists, clergy and elected officials are expected to attend a Chicago celebration of life on Friday for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

The event honoring the protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate follows memorial services that drew large crowds in Chicago and South Carolina, where the civil rights leader was born.

The Chicago celebration — at an influential Black church with a 10,000-seat arena — is anticipated to be the largest. Former Democratic U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, along with former Vice President Kamala Harris, are listed as speakers on the program, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the organization that Jackson founded. The musical lineup includes gospel singer BeBe Winans.

“These homegoing services are welcome to all. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, right wing, left wing because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American,” the civil rights leader’s son Jesse Jackson Jr. said last month. “Dad would have wanted us to have a great meeting to discuss our differences, to find ways of moving forward and moving together.”



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/jesse-jackson-chicago-memorial-civil-rights-263587cbc73df9ff9e30857aba60d492