[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 14, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H2881-H2883]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING REVEREND JESSE JACKSON
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Clyburn
of South Carolina was recognized for 30 minutes.)
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay homage to the
late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.
On Tuesday, February 14, 2026, I joined the Nation in mourning the
passing of one of the most quintessential civil rights leaders: the
Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.
Our relationship began as students at rival high schools in South
Carolina--he at Sterling in Greenville and me at Mather Academy in
Camden. Our schools played football and basketball against each other.
Jesse was a star quarterback at Sterling, and I was a prolific
benchwarmer at Mather Academy, but the rivalry was there and real. He
could play, and I could yell.
That relationship was extended and intensified when he enrolled at
North Carolina A&T, an 1890 Land Grant HBCU in Greensboro, North
Carolina. I was already attending South Carolina State, the 1890 HBCU
in our home State.
There was and still is an intense rivalry between those two iconic
institutions. Then, independent of each other, we both pledged and
became members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. It was in that brotherhood
and during our political activism, although not always in the same
camp, that we developed a love and respect that lasted throughout the
ages.
His mother, Helen, was one of my biggest political boosters and a
valued friend. Jesse and I had a genuine friendship, in large measure
because our mothers willed it to be. During my political visits to
Greenville and the Piedmont area, his mother, Helen, and her good
friend, Lottie Gibson, would make sure I had as much sustenance as
their southern fried chicken could provide.
I shall never forget the night I kicked off my campaign for South
Carolina's Secretary of State in Georgetown, every bit of a 4-hour
drive from Greenville. Just as that rally began, I looked up, and who
was walking through the door of that church? Helen Jackson and Lottie
Gibson. They had driven all the way from Greenville down to Georgetown
to help me in that effort.
I lost that race. As one can imagine, with that loss, came some
anxieties about the future. As fate would have it, I was destined to
serve here in Congress and eventually with two of Helen's grandsons:
Jesse, Jr., and Jonathan, Jesse's sons. Today, some of our children
have become friends. Ours was a friendship that spanned four
generations.
Jesse was a son of Greenville, born to a mother who was just 16 years
old at the time of his birth. His grandmother raised him until he was
13 when he then was adopted by his stepfather, Charles Jackson.
Jesse began his activism in the summer of 1960, as a student seeking
to desegregate the Greenville Public Library. Jesse recounted how
painful it was to not be allowed access to the books in that library.
After being denied that privilege, Jesse vowed to return that summer to
advocate for the library's desegregation. He became a leader in the
sit-in movement.
Jesse led seven Black high school students into the Whites-only
Greenville Public Library. They were arrested for sitting down in that
library and became known as the Greenville Eight.
Interestingly, around that same time, I became one of the leaders of
a sit-in in Orangeburg, and some referred to us as the Orangeburg
Seven.
It was interesting how all of this happened during that time. There
was the Greensboro Four up in North Carolina and the Friendship Nine in
Rock Hill. I don't know why they gave us those kind of monikers, but we
wore them with pride.
The Greenville Eight ultimately won the right to have access to that
library. Today, the Greenville Public Library serves all people, and
that episode launched what would become for Jesse a life of civil
rights and political activism.
He became director of Operation Breadbasket and the founder of the
venerable Rainbow PUSH Coalition, an intergenerational movement to
uplift the voiceless and downtrodden.
His passion to bring together people of all colors and creeds is a
testament to his vision of unity and oneness, as proclaimed by our
Nation's motto: ``E Pluribus Unum''; ``out of many, one.''
Operation PUSH became renowned for using direct action, selective
buying, and creative negotiations to encourage major corporations to be
more inclusive, hire more Black executives, and support and contract
with Black-owned businesses and corporations.
{time} 2100
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition was and still is about dignity, fairness,
justice, and hope. Jesse worked to make the greatness of this country
accessible and affordable for all.
Jesse's historic Presidential runs in 1984 and 1988 were reflective
of his strong will, guiding faith, and belief in possibilities. Those
two Presidential campaigns came up short, but that didn't stop him.
Because of Jesse's efforts, an end was brought to the winner-take-all
distribution of delegates, a creative device comparable to those that
were prevalent post-Reconstruction.
Where is the fairness when the candidate who gets 51 percent of the
votes receives 100 percent of the delegates?
Despite what may be said to the contrary, it is a fact that this
change allowed underdogs and nonwealthy candidates to compete,
increased voter diversity, and paved the way for future candidates.
Were it not for the proportional voting in our primaries made
possible because of Jesse's efforts, Barack Obama would not have
received our party's nomination and would not have been elected our
44th President of these United States of America. Jesse's efforts were
not in vain.
A life lived defying odds, Reverend Jackson showed us that if we
remain focused, work hard, and unite in our purpose, we can continue
bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice and continue our
pursuit of a more perfect Union.
Operation Breadbasket, anti-apartheid activism, voter registration,
and corporate diversity were among just a few of his initiatives that
advanced opportunity and equality for Black Americans.
It should not be lost on any of us that the impact that Jesse had on
the Nation and the world was great. His visionary leadership is his
legacy, and his orations continue to inspire all of us as we continue
our pursuit of justice and equality.
In 3 months, we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of this
country's existence. I quote from Thomas Paine's famous writing, ``The
American Crisis,'' published in 1776, during the American Revolution.
Paine wrote: ``These are the times that try men's souls. The summer
soldier and sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the
service of his country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love
and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the
conflict, the more glorious the triumph.''
Jesse Louis Jackson was not a summer soldier. He was not a sunshine
patriot. He stood with the times. Because of his efforts, many of us
can stand where we stand today.
Jesse endured setbacks, losses, and the scrutiny of those who did not
believe in him. But still, Jesse taught us to renew our faith in what
is possible.
My favorite Old Testament Scripture is Micah 6:8: For he has shown
thee, O man, that which is required--to do justly, be merciful, and
walk humbly.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, when this country grew weary of justice,
it was Jesse who led us to keep walking humbly and maintaining hope.
Jesse believed and internalized the admonition found in James 2,
``Faith without works is dead.''
Jesse's voice calls on each of us to keep that faith as enunciated in
Hebrews 11:1: ``Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things unseen.''
Jesse understood that we must find the strength to fight for a more
perfect Union and find the compassion to make it universal.
On March 2, 2026, the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson returned home
to South Carolina to lie in state in the South Carolina State Capitol.
I had the
[[Page H2882]]
honor of paying homage to him that day, and hundreds filed past his
casket to pay respects.
Jesse's efforts in the place he called home never wavered. In 2015,
he came home to advocate for the removal of the Confederate battle flag
from the South Carolina State House grounds after nine Black
worshippers were killed at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by a
young white supremacist who worshipped that flag and wanted his act to
start a ``race war,'' his quote.
Jesse became the second Black person to lie in state in our State's
Capitol. The first was his and my friend, the late pastor and State
Senator Clementa Pinckney, who was one of those Emanuel 9.
I am pleased to be here this evening and to be part of this
Congressional Black Caucus Special Order. I thank my good friend for
allowing me to be here. Cleo is my classmate from 1993. I thank him for
allowing me to be here.
I close by thanking Jesse's family for what they mean to me and my
family. It is an emotional connection not easy to explain.
In his 1984 Rainbow Coalition speech, Jesse said: ``No matter how
difficult the days and dark the nights, there is a brighter side
somewhere. In Angola; Mozambique; Nicaragua; El Salvador; South Africa;
Greenville, South Carolina; and Harlem, there is a brighter side.''
The impact of his enduring legacy will resonate for years to come.
May he take his rightful place among those who have shaped this
Nation's course and pushed us further toward a more perfect Union.
{time} 2110
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
Mr. GREEN of Texas. And still I rise, Mr. Speaker. And I rise tonight
to thank the Honorable Jim Clyburn for that fantastic recitation that
he accorded us. It was a walk down memory lane.
I also am honored to be in the presence of the Honorable Jonathan
Jackson, and I thank him for his presence and the many things that he
and his family have contributed to the growth of our Nation.
I would also like to thank Cleo Fields who gave birth to the notion
that we should have such an event tonight. All of these persons, and
many more, have made this possible.
While I will be terse and laconic, pithy and concise, I will assure
you, Mr. Speaker, that I won't say all that I would like to say. I do
want to remind people of the thing that caused Reverend Jackson to be
set apart from his contemporaries.
Yes, he was a brilliant man, and his ability to speak in sound bites
was just remarkable. Yes, he had the ability to organize and mobilize
huge numbers of people.
But the thing that really caused him to be someone very special, an
exemplar, was the fact that he had courage. It was courage. It took the
courage that he learned as he sat with Dr. King and understood the
civil rights movement from genesis to revelation. He understood what
the movement was all about, and, as such, he understood that the
movement had to metamorphose from civil rights to silver rights.
He, quite frankly, was the person who pushed the movement from not
just taking care of people who needed housing, who needed a living
wage, and people who needed healthcare. All of these issues he still
embraced, but he also brought in a new element, and that element to the
equation was the silver rights movement.
He knew that we had not been treated fairly when it came to
integrating the various places that we would want to rest and dine. He
knew that, but he also knew something else, that we had to integrate
more than people and more than places.
He knew that we had to integrate the money. That is where the silver
rights movement--the silver rights movement had its genesis with him.
I want to say more, Mr. Speaker, but the Honorable Yvette Clarke
waits, and I have the good sense to know when to yield to the better
person.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Clyburn for according me this opportunity. I
don't know what Congress would be without Jim Clyburn. It wouldn't be
the same. He is the C in Congress, Clyburn.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Brooklyn, New York (Ms.
Clarke), who is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South
Carolina for his leadership and for yielding time to me.
I also thank Congressman Cleo Fields, who was an anchor of this
evening's Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
I am Representative Yvette D. Clarke, chair of the Congressional
Black Caucus, proudly representing New York's Ninth Congressional
District.
I rise tonight with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus
to honor the enduring legacy of the late Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Today, we reaffirm our deep gratitude for his extraordinary
contributions to American democracy and global human rights. For more
than one-half century, Reverend Jackson stood on the front lines of the
movement for justice, equality, and human dignity.
From marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the civil
rights movement to building institutions that empowered millions, his
life's work helped move our Nation closer to its founding ideals.
Through the founding of Operation PUSH and later the Rainbow
Coalition, he built one of the most influential social justice
movements in modern American history.
In 1984, Reverend Jackson broke barriers, running for the Democratic
Presidential nomination and becoming the first African American to run
and win in statewide primaries and caucuses, garnering over 3 million
votes.
Through his historic Presidential campaigns and decades of
organizing, Reverend Jackson helped break open doors for Black
political power in this Nation, expanding the electorate, building
multiracial coalitions, and paving the way for a new generation of
Black elected leaders.
Many of us serving in Congress today walk paths that Reverend Jackson
helped clear. He challenged America to live up to its highest ideals,
pushed leaders to act with courage, and reminded the Nation that
democracy works best when it works for everyone.
The Congressional Black Caucus honors his extraordinary contributions
to this Nation and to humanity. His life stands as a testament to faith
in action, courage in the face of adversity, and an unshakeable belief
in the power of people coming together to build a more just society.
At a time when the powers that be seek to take our community
backward, Reverend Jackson's leadership, moral clarity, and dedication
to justice will be greatly missed.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kennedy of Utah). The gentleman from
South Carolina has 4 minutes remaining.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Meeks), whose roots are in South Carolina.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Clyburn and Brother Fields for
the opportunity, and I thank the young man here who has Jesse Jackson's
DNA in him, the Honorable Jonathan Jackson.
Mr. Speaker, I stand here today as a Member of the United States
House of Representatives. I am only here because of a man by the name
of Jesse Jackson, Jr., who in 1984 was running for President. I had
recently gotten out of law school, and I had not really been involved
in a whole lot of politics at that time. However, there was a campaign.
He came into New York, and he met with a group of people there. I
happened to be there.
He wanted young people involved in his campaign, and I was given the
opportunity to get involved in his campaign and bring him to a little
place in New York called Far Rockaway, New York, where people who had
never voted before came out to see him. Particularly young people were
inspired and were getting informed on the communities in which they
lived to make a difference and making themselves feel proud.
I will never forget at that rally there were a lot of young people.
He used his
[[Page H2883]]
``I am somebody, you are somebody.'' He said: You are somebody. He was
talking to some young folks, and he said: ``Up with hope, down with
dope,'' because you are somebody.
He then talked about unity. He said: Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, or
White, we are all precious in God's sight. If your mind can conceive
it, you can achieve it.
I looked at the young people who were in that audience, and he had
them all standing up. Some of them in Far Rockaway had never been to
Manhattan in New York, just some 12 miles away, you could see the New
York skyline. He inspired these young people, and for days thereafter,
they were telling everybody: ``I am somebody.''
{time} 2120
This is a man that knew how to bring out the best in everyone and
bring us all together, teaching us how to make this land a better
place, making the sacrifices to make America America.
Jesse Louis Jackson was a man that when we look at American history,
what the cameras of history have recorded, and how so many people then
turned out in the city of New York, for example, because David Norman
Dinkins would have never been the mayor, the first Black mayor in the
city of New York if it wasn't for 1984 and 1988 and the spirit of Jesse
Jackson.
I close by just saying this: I thank God for the opportunity to have
lived in the life and times and have Jesse Jackson then come and
endorse my first candidacy for the United States House of
Representatives. He was one of the very first when there was no one
else because he never forgot me working with him in 1984. I thank the
Lord for this opportunity to speak and give tribute to one of the
greatest men that this planet has ever seen.
Mr. CLYBURN. Let me just close, Mr. Speaker, if I may, by thanking
the organizers of this, Cleo and Jonathan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. CLYBURN. Let me just say that I do believe you have heard from my
colleagues tonight about one of America's best products.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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