Obama calls for Jackson’s fight for justice to go on
Former president Barack Obama praised Jesse Jackson for combating abuses of power at a memorial service for the longtime civil rights activist, while warning that the United States faces attacks on democracy every day.
Obama joined former presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton and former vice president Kamala Harris at a public event in Chicago on Friday honoring Jackson, who died in February at age 84.
The White House said President Donald Trump did not attend the meeting due to his schedule.
“Every day we wake up to another attack on our democratic institutions, another blow to the very idea of the rule of law, another attack on public decency,” Obama said.
Obama, other Democratic dignitaries and religious leaders called on hundreds of attendees to honor Jackson, who championed voting rights and desegregation by continuing the fight for equality and justice.
“Every day, those in high places tell us to fear each other, to be enemies of each other, and that some Americans are more important than others and some don’t count at all,” Obama said.
“We see science and expertise denigrated, while ignorance, dishonesty, cruelty and corruption reap untold rewards.”
The memorial service at the House of Hope, a 10,000-seat venue on Chicago’s South Side, celebrated Jackson with a choir performing gospel songs; Meanwhile, the participants stood, clapped and sang.
In addition to former presidents, former First Lady Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, who also served as US secretary of state, also attended the meeting, as well as basketball great Isiah Thomas and prominent civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton.
Speakers called for Jackson to continue his fight for racial equality as the Trump administration restricts diversity programs and targets museum and educational content about slavery that it sees as “un-American.”
“We are in a difficult situation,” Joe Biden said.
“We have an administration that does not share the values we have.”
Memorial events for Jackson began in Chicago last week.
Jackson’s body was in his birthplace of South Carolina.
An inspirational orator and longtime Chicagoan, Jackson helped lead the nation’s civil rights movement following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
For more than half a century, Jackson, a two-time presidential candidate, worked to dismantle discriminatory systems and expand the political participation of Black Americans and other marginalized communities.
While Bill Clinton urged attendees to ask what they could do to match Jackson’s achievements, Sharpton criticized efforts to weaken diversity initiatives.
“We beat people bigger than Trump,” Sharpton said, urging the crowd to “leave here with some Jackson fire in you.”
