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COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., a legendary civil rights leader, will return to his roots in South Carolina for a final tribute as he lies in state at the capitol on Monday.
This honor is a significant departure from his early years in Greenville, where segregation prevented him from accessing the well-resourced whites-only library branch in 1960.
In a bold move, Jackson, accompanied by seven Black high school students, entered that restricted library. They sat and read until their arrest, a powerful act that led to the eventual desegregation of the library branches.
This pivotal moment set Jackson on a lifelong journey advocating for equality. His efforts captured the attention of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., leading to Jackson’s participation in the historic Selma to Montgomery voting rights march.
Jackson passed away on February 17 at the age of 84, after dealing with a rare neurological disorder that affected his speech and mobility in recent years.
The South Carolina services are part of two weeks of events. It began with Jackson’s body lying in repose and the public invited last week to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Chicago headquarters.
After South Carolina, Jackson will be returned to Chicago for a large celebration of life gathering at a megachurch and the final homegoing services at the headquarters of Rainbow PUSH. Plans for a service in Washington, D.C., to honor him have been postponed until a later date.
Nationally, Jackson advocated for the poor and underrepresented for voting rights, job opportunities, education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders.
Trough his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society. He stepped forward as the Civil Rights Movement’s torchbearer after King’s assassination, and would run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.
Jackson continued to be active in his home state, pushing in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor and in 2015 by advocating for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina Statehouse grounds after nine Black worshipers were killed in a racist shooting at a Charleston church.
Jackson is just the second Black man to lie in state at the South Carolina capitol. State Sen. Clementa Pinckney was honored in 2015 after he was shot and killed in the Charleston church shooting.
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