Three presidents, and thousands of everyday people, celebrate the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson

      This was an assignment. I don't get asked to cover much spot news. But my obituary of Jesse Jackson racked up millions of views, and the paper wanted me to bring my perspective to Jesse Jackson's Chicago homegoing. The natural focus seemed to be the three presidents in attendance (actually there were four — the president of Colombia, for some reason never explained, spoke, in Spanish, late in the program) and I think that worked, though there was a lot more going on, a joyful multitude — I think my favorite speaker was Detroit Piston Isaiah Thomas, who wept as he described Jackson speaking at his mother's funeral. The music also was wonderful, lots of soaring gospel, and while I'd heard each of the presidents speak in person before, it was inspiring to hear them again, particularly Barack Obama. Before the ceremony, I had a chance to talk with Father Michael Pfleger a bit, and promised to stop by his church some Sunday, and with my old pal, Sen. Dick Durbin. I was pleased at grouping the Daleys for a portrait, and talked with Rich for the first time in a decade. 

     In life, the Rev. Jesse Jackson sought out the powerful with tireless intensity.
     In death, the powerful sought him out, one last time, as three former U.S. presidents and a galaxy of lesser luminaries paid boisterous tribute to the civil rights leader Friday on the South Side. of Chicago.
     Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Jill Biden were joined by thousands of celebrants in a five-hour "public homegoing" service at the House of Hope, 752 E. 114th, a 10,000-seat facility in the Pullman neighborhood.
     Obama brought up the country's divisive climate under the Trump administration and praised Jackson's voice of inspiration calling on Americans to become "heralds of change." Many speakers spoke to this being a moment for the country not to despair, but to have faith and take action, as Jackson would have done.
     Each day, Obama said, brings “some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common needs.

     "Each day we’re told … to fear each other, to turn on each other and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all. ... Everywhere, we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength," he said.

     Obama said it’s “tempting for some to compromise with power” or for Americans to simply put their heads down.

     “But this man,” Obama said, pointing to Jackson’s casket, “Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path. His voice called on each of us to be heralds of change, to be messengers of hope, to step forward and say, 'Send me wherever we have a chance to make an impact, whether it’s in our schools, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our cities, not for faith, not for glory or because success is guaranteed, but because it gives our life purpose.'"

For Obama, that inspiration came from Jackson's 1984 presidential run. He described being a college student and sitting in a "janky apartment" in New York as he watched Jackson debate his opponents on TV.

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