Three former presidents, a sitting mayor and governor, business executives, clergy members and gospel singers gathered on Friday morning on the South Side of Chicago at a public memorial service for the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The service on Friday, by turns celebratory and solemn, drew thousands of Chicagoans and capped two weeks of memorials to Mr. Jackson, whose oratory and activism arguing for racial equality and opportunity made him one of the most powerful civil rights figures of his time.
The Jackson family welcomed three of the four living former U.S. presidents as speakers: Barack Obama, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Bill Clinton. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, who has called Mr. Jackson a beloved mentor, spoke at the service, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton, the New York civil rights leader; and Tom Ricketts, an owner of the Chicago Cubs.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Jill Biden, the former first lady, also attended. The service will feature performances by Jennifer Hudson, Bebe Winans and the Rev. Marvin Winans, the family said.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a priest who has spent decades ministering to a mostly Black parish on the South Side, took the stage first, standing just behind the casket that was covered in a spray of hundreds of peach and white roses.
“We thank you that there was no fight too small or too big for him to take on,” he said, “to level the playing field of a country that has never played fair.”
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois hailed Mr. Jackson for his work, while acknowledging the difficulty of memorializing “a man who always loomed so large above us.”
“Here in Chicago, he was our neighbor,” he said, prompting shouts and applause from the crowd, adding: “Reverend Jackson belonged to Chicago, and Chicago belonged to him.”
One of Mr. Jackson’s sons, Yusef, spoke of his father’s expansive life, one that was longer than Mr. Jackson ever expected.
“The reverend’s mind and will was strong even as his body failed him,” he said, vowing that his father’s social justice advocacy organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, would continue even after his death. “His legacy will not be carried forward by family alone.”
Mr. Jackson’s body lay in repose for two days last week in Chicago at the headquarters of the coalition and again in Columbia, S.C., on Monday, after arriving at the statehouse on a horse-drawn caisson.
The Jackson family chose House of Hope, an arena that seats 10,000 people in the Pullman neighborhood, for Mr. Jackson’s “public homegoing,” a ceremony of speeches and song to celebrate his life. Mr. Jackson died last month at his Chicago home at 84, after suffering from a neurodegenerative condition that limited his speech and mobility.
For hours before the service, the front section of the arena became a glad-handing who’s-who of Chicago civic life. Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, sat next to Mr. Sharpton; Rod Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois, posed for pictures with fans.
Outside the arena, admirers took shuttle buses to the service, or parked more than a mile away and walked.
Cheryl Gordon, a 63-year-old real estate broker from Chicago, said she held strong memories of Mr. Jackson from when she was a young girl.
“I do remember the speeches, and him empowering us that we could be anything as young, Black children,” she said. “That we could be anything that we wanted and didn’t have to work for anybody.”
Chicago was Mr. Jackson’s adopted hometown, the place where he spent most of his life. He first settled in Chicago in his 20s to lead the city’s chapter of Operation Breadbasket, a national economic development campaign. For decades, from his perch at Rainbow PUSH, Mr. Jackson drew mayoral candidates, presidential hopefuls and local leaders to the organization’s famed Saturday forums.
Hundreds of people who knew Mr. Jackson personally stood in line last week at Rainbow PUSH to pay their respects, bringing flowers and mementos that they left outside. Mr. Jackson’s children stood alongside his casket and shook hands with the mourners, some of whom had waited for hours before it was their turn to enter.
A smaller service for invited guests is scheduled for Saturday at Rainbow PUSH headquarters in Chicago.
Robert Chiarito contributed reporting.
Julie Bosman is the Chicago bureau chief for The Times, writing and reporting stories from around the Midwest.
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