[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H2877-H2879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMEMORATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE REVEREND JESSE LOUIS JACKSON,
SR.
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Fields
of Louisiana was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
minority leader.)
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the Speaker for allowing
the Congressional Black Caucus to use this first Special Order hour to
commemorate the life and legacy of my mentor, my leader, and my friend,
the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.
I was a student with humble beginnings. There were nine siblings. My
dad passed when I was 5 years old, so I was raised by a single parent.
Given my circumstances, I was a young man caught between hope and
expectations. I had hope to do a lot of things, but my expectations
were not high.
{time} 2010
I first had a chance to hear Reverend Jackson speak in 1978, some 48
years ago. I was a sophomore at McKinley Senior High School. All the
kids in East Baton Rouge Parish were shuttled by bus to the Baton Rouge
River Center to hear Reverend Jesse Jackson.
After listening to Reverend Jackson's ``I Am Somebody'' speech, I
connected the reality that I really was somebody. I didn't just have to
hope to be, I could expect to be.
Reverend Jackson's impact on my life at that time gave me hope and
the audacity to believe. I believed that I was somebody. He made me
dream beyond my circumstances. He changed what I thought and what was
possible, and it was at that time that I came out of my shell.
The next year, I became president of the Key Club, and then vice
president of my senior class, all because of the ``I Am Somebody''
speech that impacted my life.
After my time at McKinley, I went on to attend Southern University,
where I continued to chase dreams. I went on to become the freshman
class president, and then student body president in 1984, all because
of the impact of Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson.
Forty-two years ago, my student body vice president, Michael Hurst,
who was from Chicago, called me one day and said: The Reverend Jesse
Jackson is coming to town, would you like me to introduce you to him?
Obviously, I said: Yes, of course. Meeting the man who had made such
an impression on me as a kid was extremely important. This was the same
man that I saw speak as a 10th grader, who inspired me to believe that
I was somebody. Now, I had an opportunity to meet him and talk to him
one on one.
That is when he made me his college coordinator, in 1984, for his
Presidential campaign. I remember we were traveling the country. We
were in Michigan, registering people to vote, and I got discouraged.
I said to Reverend Jackson: These voters are just apathetic. He said:
Cleo, there is no such thing as an apathetic voter. They are only
uninspired, and it is our job to inspire every last one of them.
That showed me that he wanted to see the best in everybody, and I
chose to follow him because he was a light of hope.
When I first thought about running for public office, the first
political figure I talked to was Reverend Jesse Jackson. I know a lot
of folk in Baton Rouge, but I wanted to talk to someone about the idea
of a 24-year-old running for the Louisiana State senate, and I called
Reverend Jackson. I thought the answer would have been: Start at city
council or start at the school board. No, Jesse Jackson said: If you
don't run, you can't win, and I did.
Reverend Jackson ran for President again in 1988, 38 years ago. He
called me, and he told me: I want you to serve as a youth coordinator
for my 1988 campaign. I was traveling the country with him, campaigning
for him. ``Keep hope alive'' was our slogan.
Right before the Democratic National Convention, out of the blue, I
got a call from his campaign manager, Ron Brown. He called me and said:
Reverend Jackson wants you to speak on no first use of nuclear weapons
at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. He put me on the
national stage, a very young man. As a young elected official, I
believed in him.
In 1993, 33 years ago, I was elected to Congress. I was just 29 years
of age. Once again, Reverend Jackson was there, supporting me every
single step of the way, encouraging me, making me believe that I was
capable. It wasn't just me. He inspired young leaders across America.
As a result of his 1984 race and 1988 race for President, he inspired
all of us, specifically a group of young leaders right here in this
Congress. I remember.
In 1994, Patrick Kennedy, at age 27, was elected to this Congress. I
also had
[[Page H2878]]
the distinct opportunity to serve with his own son, Jesse Jackson, Jr.,
only 30 years old in 1995. I had a chance to serve with him. Don't
forget, in 1996, a gentleman by the name of Harold Washington, Jr., was
elected to this body, all inspired by Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Upon being reelected to Congress in 2025, I have had the opportunity
to serve with one other Jackson, and that is Reverend Jackson's son as
well, and that is Jonathan Jackson. Jesse Jackson has inspired us all.
Every time I ran for office, Reverend Jackson was there. Every office
I have ever been elected to, he was there to support me. Without his
early inspiration and guidance, I wouldn't be here on this floor
speaking to you tonight.
There is not a single individual in this world, outside of my mother,
who had more of an impact on my life than the man we are here to
celebrate tonight. I thank him, and I thank you for gathering as we
commemorate his wonderful life and his legacy.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding. Mr. Speaker, I just want to rise today to thank my colleagues
in the Congressional Black Caucus for organizing this Special Order
hour and for honoring the life and legacy of the late, great Reverend
Jackson, Sr., a man who truly taught us all how to keep hope alive.
Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., is not only a friend to the
Congressional Black Caucus, but he was a friend of all of ours
individually and collectively.
He had a very humble birth, born to a single mother, and started his
political life by being arrested for protesting around not being
admitted to a segregated library and became one of the storied
Greenville Eight in that protest.
Of course, you will hear from others tonight about his association
with the late, great Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. You will hear
about his leadership at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
his founding of Rainbow PUSH, his negotiating the release of American
hostages in various parts of the world, his running for the President
of United States, both in 1984 and 1988.
I lived 90 miles from Chicago, and so I know the Reverend Jackson who
would just show up at random, unknown people's grandmother's funeral. I
knew the Reverend Jackson, who showed up in Milwaukee long before I was
elected to anything, as I stand here in Congress today.
As I looked through all of my photographs, I saw pictures of Reverend
Jackson in Milwaukee, working with local leadership and the NAACP
around open housing in Milwaukee.
As I looked through those photos, I saw pictures of me as a State
representative, a newly elected member to the Wisconsin Assembly as our
city went through the horror of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial murderer who
killed Black men in our community, and Reverend Jackson was there
hugging family members of those victims, praying with them and offering
them his clergy support.
{time} 2020
As I looked through my pictures, I saw photos of Reverend Jackson
coming to help us get out the vote, continuously, year after year, in
our very purple State. I saw with my own eyes the Reverend Jackson
comforting a victim of police brutality, the murder of Dontre Hamilton,
and coming there to support us in the protest and to comfort the mother
of this victim. An unarmed Black man, lying on a park bench, was found
dead at the hands of a policeman.
One of the most remarkable things that I was able to experience was
when he went to Kenosha, Wisconsin. Do you all remember Kyle
Rittenhouse? Do you all remember how Kyle Rittenhouse was being lifted
up as some sort of hero by White vigilantes, even some of those White
vigilantes who are here serving as public figures in Washington, D.C.?
I won't mention any names, Mr. Speaker.
Reverend Jackson was sitting there, plotting and planning with the
clergy in Kenosha, with community-based organizations, to form an
alternative activity: to provide COVID tests to people; to organize a
festive atmosphere with balloons for the children and food vendors, all
in response to the counter-programming that was intended to rile up the
Black community.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., I got a chance to just witness, up close
and personal, the behind-the-scenes brilliance. I had seen the upfront
brilliance, but this was the behind-the-scenes brilliance that I was
able to see.
Reverend Jackson implored us to believe in the mantra that ``I am
somebody'' and urged us to keep hope alive.
Let me just say in closing, Mr. Speaker, that Reverend Jackson
probably understood better than any of us that the mission is enduring
and that no one life could be the be-all.
He has passed the baton now. He is the one who carried it with
dignity and strength, with determination and doggedness.
I want to close with the Scripture from the Apostle Paul in II
Timothy 4:7. As he saw the end of his life approaching, and carried on
by the Holy Spirit, he wrote these words: I have fought the good fight;
I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.
Reverend Jackson, Jesse, you have fought the good fight; you finished
the race; and you kept the faith.
Mr. Speaker, may we all carry forth this legacy, and may we continue
to keep hope alive, not just in word but in action, for the healing of
our very troubled but beloved Nation at this time.
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), who
is from the Fourth Congressional District.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Fields
for anchoring this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour
dedicated to extolling the virtues of the late Reverend Jesse Louis
Jackson, Sr.
Today, I rise to honor a giant of American history, Reverend Jesse
Louis Jackson, Sr. He was a man whose life was a testament to courage,
conviction, and an unshakable faith in justice.
Reverend Jackson did not merely witness history. He made history. He
shaped history. He stood in the trenches of the civil rights movement,
marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and devoted his life to
expanding opportunity for those too often pushed to the margins of this
Nation.
For so many of us, Reverend Jackson was more than that leader. He was
a trailblazer. He showed generations of Black elected officials,
activists, clergy, and public servants that our voices, our
communities, and our fight for justice matter.
Yes, I am somebody. His life and work helped make the very spaces we
now occupy possible. Because of his leadership, sacrifice, and moral
clarity, many of us found the courage to step forward in service to
mankind. His impact was not only national and international; his impact
was deeply personal.
He was a handsome man, the embodiment of youth with a great big, full
afro and mutton-chop sideburns, wearing a dashiki proudly, and
courageously proclaiming: ``I am somebody.''
He challenged us to believe that we are somebody, that our people are
worthy, and that progress requires both faith and action. He challenged
us to keep hope alive. That message has shaped lives, careers, and
callings across this country, including my own.
Reverend Jesse Jackson leaves behind more than a legacy. He leaves
behind a charge to keep marching, keep speaking, keep organizing, and
keep believing in the promise of America, even when America falls
short.
Mr. Speaker, may we honor him not only with our words, but with our
work. Our hearts remain with his loved ones, including our colleague
Congressman Jonathan Jackson.
May he rest in peace, and may his legacy live on forever in every
person he inspired. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.
Thank you, Jesse.
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for those
words.
I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Amo).
Mr. AMO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a giant of the civil
rights movement, Reverend Jesse Jackson. He is a man who understood
that the success of any individual or community is
[[Page H2879]]
interwoven like threads in a rainbow quilt. He was a man who dedicated
his life to lifting up the least among us and a man who reminded us
that our Nation is only as strong as its promise to every child, every
family, and every community.
From walking alongside Dr. King to his time in public service and the
enduring legacy of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Reverend Jackson showed
us that racial justice and economic justice are inseparable and that
true equality requires both.
He believed that hope is not a sentiment but a call to action. He
knew that the work of building a more just and inclusive America is
never finished.
As a college student, I remember watching his `88 convention speech
and being moved by seeing an image of someone who looked like me on the
highest stage, saying that the feeling of this Nation could be
compelled by action and driven by hope.
{time} 2030
That message to keep hope alive is why I am standing here right now.
The feeling of hope, which also happens to be the motto of the great
State of Rhode Island, is something that has been the center of my
service, and I am so honored to be recognizing someone who inspired it.
Now it is on us to carry forward his legacy, to ensure that the
Rainbow Coalition can continue, and that we keep the promise of America
for every child no matter their race, their ZIP Code, or where their
family is from.
Mr. Speaker, I am so honored that I get to serve with a big part of
Reverend Jackson's legacy, his son, Jonathan, my dear colleague.
Reverend Jackson, you are deeply missed. Your mission lives on,
however, in each one of us, and we will carry it forward with courage,
with justice, and yes, of course, hope. Rest in power.
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those words.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Bell).
Mr. BELL. Mr. Speaker, tonight, I will begin by talking about what it
meant to be Black in America before Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr.
The message this country sent to Black children, whether they grew up
in Greenville, South Carolina, or in St. Louis was simple: You are not
enough. Not enough to lead. Not enough to run. Certainly not enough to
win.
Jesse Jackson spent his entire life dismantling that lie.
That message didn't start with any one person. It was written into
the founding documents of this country. It survived the Civil War. It
survived Reconstruction. By the time the civil rights movement had
finally forced America to live up to its own words on paper--the right
to vote, the right to sit anywhere in this country, the right to walk
through the front door--there was still something left untouched. It
was something deeper, the belief, planted in generation after
generation of Black children, that the rooms behind those doors weren't
really meant for them.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., walked into that breach, and he didn't
just march. He ran.
In 1984, kids across this country--I was one of them--were watching a
Black man on television, not appealing to anyone's conscience, not
asking for inclusion, but running for President of the United States,
winning delegates, walking into that convention floor, and demanding to
be taken seriously.
Jesse Jackson, Sr., understood something that a lot of people still
haven't caught up to: The vote and the dollar have to move together.
You cannot march your way to dignity if the political system keeps
finding new ways to lock you out. He didn't wait for the party to make
room. He built the room for himself, ran twice for the highest office
in the land, and forced a reckoning with whom this democracy was
actually supposed to serve.
You cannot draw a straight line to Barack Obama, to Kamala Harris, or
even to me without acknowledging the impact and legacy of Reverend
Jesse Jackson.
We are standing in this Chamber today because of that work, every
single one of us.
The question he leaves us with isn't: How do we remember him? It is
whether we are still building what he started. Because the work, as any
of us in this room can plainly see, is not finished.
Mr. Speaker, I will conclude with this: ``But let justice roll down
like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.''
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for his
comments about Reverend Jackson.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Menefee), a
newly elected Member of this House.
Mr. MENEFEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Fields for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a freedom fighter, a legend in
this country, my Omega brother, the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson,
Sr.
He was an icon who marched with Dr. King, who helped lead the Poor
People's Campaign for economic justice, and to end an unjust war. He
was an icon who ran for President and changed what this country
believed was possible. He registered millions of voters who had never
seen themselves in this democracy that we also hold dear.
He built the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to prove that our differences are
our strength. Black, Brown, White, indigenous, immigrant, he believed
we rise together or we do not rise at all.
Reverend Jackson was a truth teller, and the ills that he spoke to
still demand an answer today.
Courts still to this day strike down voting laws that target Black
Americans with what one Federal court called ``almost surgical
precision.'' Black women still to this day die in childbirth at rates
that shame this Nation. The racial wealth gap still to this day robs
entire communities of the opportunity that the late Reverend Jackson
fought his entire life to deliver.
Those battles are not behind us. They are right here. They are in
this Chamber. They are in our districts. They are in the choices that
we make every single day that we serve. We carry Reverend Jackson's
legacy forward by engaging in those battles, by being a voice for those
who have been made to feel like they are voiceless.
We are going to be all right, but not by accident and not without
work. Reverend Jackson did that work for six decades. Now it is on us.
Rest in peace, Brother Jackson. It is the honor of my life to follow
in your footsteps of fighting every single day alongside your son, my
colleague, Jonathan Jackson. Rest in peace, brother.
Mr. FIELDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his
comments, and I thank all the members of the CBC for their
participation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________