Lauded by his son, his mayor and others who have known him over his decades of advocacy, Rev. Jesse Jackson celebrated his 83rd birthday at City Hall and was given the key to the city.
“I think it is entirely appropriate to give great men and great women flowers while they can still smell them,” U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, one of the civil rights leader’s sons, told the crowd.
“People who make an indelible mark on the lives of millions of people, who push the moral arc of this nation in the right direction, should know that their work has not been in vain,” he added. “And if Jesse Jackson had not been born that 83 years ago, we would have had to create one, because the history of this nation would not be the same without you, Dad.”
The congressman also nodded slightly to the upcoming election in crediting his father’s two presidential campaigns, in 1984 and 1988, with “lighting the way for those who would come behind him.”
Jackson has lived in Chicago for decades, overseeing what started as Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), and later founding the Rainbow Coalition. Those two groups later merged into the current Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
“There is a magic between this man and this city that allows great things to happen when people come together,” Rep. Jackson said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson followed Rep. Jackson, noting that the last person to get the key to the city was Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid activist who was jailed in South African for 27 years before eventually being freed, and elected as that country’s president.
“Chicago is very pleased and proud to have you as our son, father, brother, champion,” Johnson said. “You’ve empowered the lives of people all over the globe.”
Jackson’s public activism began decades ago, when he was one of the “Greenville Eight,” a group of Black college students protesting at the whites-only public library in Greenville, South Carolina, where Jackson grew up. In the years since, he remained active in the movement. He also has, multiple times, successfully negotiated the release of U.S. citizens being held hostage abroad.
Jackson’s activities have slowed in recent years. He announced in 2017 he was being treated for Parkinson’s disease after being diagnosed two years prior.