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During his father’s time memorial service on SaturdayJesse Jackson Jr. offered a sharp rebuke of the endorsements given by former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, noting that the three shared one thing in common: they didn’t really know their father.
“Yesterday I listened for several hours to three American presidents who don’t know Jesse Jackson,” Jackson Jr. said. on Saturday.
The pastor’s son expressed the view that his father’s life was not defined by ‘political order,’ but by his commitment to the marginalized.
“He maintained a strong relationship with the political system, not because the presidents were White or Black, but the demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the little ones – the outcasts, the outcasts, the dispossessed, the disrespected – don’t want to Democracy or Republican solutions, but sought a consistent, prophetic voice that didn’t sell us out as people,” Jackson Jr. continued.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former Jill Biden and former President Joe Biden attend a public memorial service celebrating the life of civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago, Ill., on March 6, 2026. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Jesse Jackson died at the age of 84 on February 17 in Chicago.
After Reverend Jackson’s death, his son held a press conference where he asked that politics not be included in the services, and more focus should be placed on Jackson’s legacy.
“Don’t bring your politics out of respect for Pastor Jesse Jackson, and the life he lived, in these ongoing services. Come respectfully, and come to thank you. But these ongoing services are welcome to ALL-Democrat, Republican, liberal, and conservative. Right-wing, left-wing. Because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American,” Jackson Jr. he said in Februaryone day after the death of his father.
Among the distinguished guests traveling to Chicago to honor the late Reverend Jesse Jackson — a longtime civil rights leader, two-time Democratic presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — includes former Vice Pres. Kamala Harrisformer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pastor Al Sharpton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
BIDEN SAYS ‘I’M H—- SMARTER THAN MOST OF YOU’ TO BURIAL AT JESSE JACKSON’S FUNERAL
Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson’s Peoples Celebration of Life and Homegoing at the House of Hope on March 06, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)
Obama, Clinton and Biden each spoke at Jackson’s funeral.
Obama it is reported that he intended to President Donald Trump during a speech, saying “every day we wake up to new attacks on our democratic institutions.”
Bill Clinton he called Jackson his friend, and he remembered his conversation with the pastor when he was indicted.
Biden he told mourners at the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s memorial service on Friday that he was “a lot smarter than most of you,” words that stood out as he paid tribute to the late civil rights leader. Biden made the comments while recounting how he was teased as a child for stuttering and that speech impediments are often mistaken for a lack of intelligence.
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Former US President Joe Biden speaks at a public memorial service celebrating the life of civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson in Chicago, Illinois, on March 6, 2026. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Overall, the memorial focused on Jackson’s legacy as a civil rights leader who helped shape the modern Democratic Party and expand political participation in the United States.
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Fox News’ Patrick McGovern, Greg Norman-Diamond and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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