A house RESOLUTION

TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, TO HONOR HIS REMARKABLE COMMITMENT as an American Civil rights activist, and to EXTEND THE DEEPEST SYMPATHY of the south Carolina House of REpresentatives TO HIS LARGE AND LOVING FAMILY AND HIS MANY FRIENDS.

Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Reverend Jesse Jackson at the age of eighty-four on February 17, 2026, after suffering for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurological disease; and

Whereas, a native son of Greenville, he was born on October 8, 1941, as Jesse Louis Burns and changed his surname to Jackson after his mother married his stepfather. He was reared under Jim Crow segregation laws which he accepted until the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955. He attended Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was elected student class president, graduated tenth in his class in 1959, and earned letters in baseball, football, and basketball; and

Whereas, after graduation, young Jackson rejected a minor league professional baseball contract to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. He transferred to North Carolina A&T, an historically black university in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he played quarterback on the football team and was elected student body president. He became active in local civil rights protests against segregated libraries, theaters, and restaurants, and he earned a bachelor's degree in 1964; and

Whereas, he continued to prepare for his storied career by studying at Chicago Theological Seminary where he received a scholarship. He left in 1966 three courses shy of finishing his degree and was later awarded a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2000. He was ordained in 1968 after beginning his work with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches after which he was charged with establishing a frontline office for the SCLC in Chicago; and

Whereas, in 1966, Reverend Jackson was chosen to head the Chicago branch of the SCLC's economic arm, Operation Breadbasket, and was promoted to national director in 1967. Operation Breadbasket had been started by the Atlanta leadership of the SCLC as a job placement agency for blacks; and

Whereas, as he became one of the world's best known Black activists, Reverend Jackson would go on to form numerous organizations which eventually amalgamated into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; and

Whereas, Reverend Jackson served from 1971 to 1997 in the United States Senate as a shadow senator from the District of Columbia and launched two campaigns for President in 1984 and again in 1988; and

Whereas, he leaves behind to cherish his memory his beloved wife, Jaqueline Brown, and six fine children, two of whom have served as members of the United States House of Representatives. He was blessed to see the continuation of his family legacy in numerous grandchildren; and

Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives are grateful for the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson and for the example of dedicated service and inspirational leadership he set for all who knew him. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, remember and celebrate the life of Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, honor his remarkable commitment as an American Civil Rights activist, and extend the deepest sympathy of the South Carolina House to his large and loving family and his many friends.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson.

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