Remembering Jesse Jackson: Mourners line up to say goodbye to civil rights leader

Mourners are paying their final respects to civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Jackson, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 84, will first lie in repose at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, The Associated Press reported.

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He will then be taken to Washington, D.C. and then South Carolina before public services are held.

Finally, a celebration of life will be held at a Chicago megachurch before a homegoing service is held at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters, the AP reported.

“Our family is overwhelmed and overjoyed by the amazing amount of support being offered by common, ordinary people who our father’s life has come into contact with,” Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson Jr. said. “This is 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.”

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One mourner remembered when he met Jackson when he was younger.

“As I was a young child, my father, he always went to Operation PUSH and the Breadbasket. I had a chance to work with my father at Campbell’s Soup. [Jackson] came out there and supported us at Campbell’s Soup, and then I got a chance, when I went to high school, he came and supported us when we had the race riots going on out there at Gage Park High School. He came up to CTA [Chicago Transit Authority] when I worked at CTA, supported us, and he’s been in my life since I was a child,” Irvin Clay said, according to WBBM. “I just want to show my appreciation to the family that he helped us out a lot.”