The body of Rev. Jesse Jackson is lying in repose at the headquarters of Rainbow Push, the civil rights organization he founded on Chicago’s south side.
Drexel Boulevard in the Kenwood neighborhood has been closed to traffic between 49th Street and Hyde Park Boulevard.
Barricades have been set up in the parkway, where hundreds of people were lined up before the doors were opened this morning.
And they continued coming.
Rev. Jackson’s voice came through speakers set up outside.
Speeches were being played.
“Oh my God, to me he was like an eagle with big wings just trying to spread it to everybody,” said Katana Stone Wooten, who recalled when Jackson visited her school in the seventies, speaking to students, saying “I am somebody.”
She said she never forgot about it.
“He came to my school, South Shore, in 1976 or 77 and I remember he spent the whole day,” she said. “We was all gathered in the auditorium and when he was saying ‘I’m somebody’ that really resonated with me all my life. It made me want to inspire, it changed my life, work harder, you know, I worked and went to school and got my education, you know, and took care of my family and he was such an inspiring person.”
Wooten’s 82-year-old mother, Arnetta Stone had fond memories of attending Saturday meetings of Operation Breadbasket and later Operation Push.
“I was just so happy that we had somebody that was willing to speak up for our needs.”
Another person who came to pay respects, Gabriel Echoles, said the impact Jackson had could not be put into words.
“What’s understood don’t need to be explained,” he said. “You can look at this crowd and tell the impact that he had on his community and quite frankly the world. No words can be said, no pictures could be posted about his impact.”
Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson Jr. said its was a “hard day.” The first time his mother has seen his father since he died last week.
“Our family is overwhelmed and overjoyed by the amazing amount of support being offered by common, ordinary people.” he said. “We see this as a unique opportunity to lay down some of the political rhetoric and to lay down some of the division that deeply divides our country and to reflect upon a man who brought people together.”
Rev. Al Sharpton said he and Rev. Jackson spent a lifetime together.
“I’ve seen him stand up to adversity,” he said. “There would not have been a democratic party the way it is today had it not been for him changing the rules that opened the door to Barak Obama and Bill Clinton, his international diplomacy, what he’s done for all of us, I want it to be clear he raised a generation of us to deal with activism and he never gave up.”