Clyburn Delivers Floor Remarks Honoring The Late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

Clyburn Delivers Floor Remarks Honoring The Late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. April 14, 2026 WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman James E. Clyburn joined the Congressional Black Cacusus to deliver the following remarks on the House floor honoring the late Reverend Jesse Jackson: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay homage to the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. On Tuesday, February 14, 2026, I joined the nation in mourning the passing of one of the most quintessential civil rights leaders – Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. Our relationship began as students at rival high schools in South Carolina, he at Sterling in Greenville and me, at Mather Academy in Camden. Our schools played football and basketball against each other. Jesse was the star quarterback at Sterling, and I was a prolific benchwarmer at Mather. But the rivalry was there. He could play, and I could yell. That relationship was extended and intensified when he enrolled at North Carolina A&T, an 1890 Land Grant HBCU in Greensboro, NC. I was already attending South Carolina State the 1890 HBCU in our home state. There was, and still is, an intense rivalry between those two iconic institutions. But, then independent of each other, we both pledged and became members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. And it was in that brotherhood, and during our political activism, although not always in the same camp, that we developed a love and respect that lasted throughout the ages. His mother Helen was one of my biggest political boosters and a valued friend. Jesse and I had a genuine friendship, in large measure, because our mothers “willed” it to be. During my political visits to Greenville and the Piedmont area, his mother Helen and her good friend Lottie Gibson, would make sure I had as much sustenance that their southern fried chicken could provide. I shall never forget the night I kicked off my campaign for South Carolina’s Secretary of State in Georgetown every bit of a four-hour drive from Greenville. Just as that rally began, I looked up and who was walking through the door of that church – Helen Jackson and Lottie Gibson. They had driven all the way from Greenville down to Georgetown, to help me in that effort. I lost that race and, as one can imagine, with that loss came some anxieties about the future. But as fate would have it, I was destined to serve here Congress and eventually, with two of her grandsons, Jesse’s sons. And today, some of our children have become friends. Ours was a friendship that spanned four generations. Jesse was a son of Greenville, South Carolina. Born to a mother who was just 16 years old at the time of his birth. His grandmother raised him until he was 13, when he was then adopted by his stepfather, Charles Jackson. Jesse began his activism in the summer of 1960 as a student seeking to desegregate the Greenville Public Library. Jesse recounted how painful it was to not be allowed access to the books in that Library. And after being denied that privilege, Jesse vowed to return that summer to advocate for the library’s desegregation. He became a leader in the sit-in movement. Jesse led seven Black high school students into the whites-only Greenville Public Library.  They were arrested for sitting down in that library and became known as “The Greenville Eight.” Interestingly, around that same time I became one of the leaders of a sit-in in Orangeburg and some referred to us as the “Orangeburg Seven.” The Greenville Eight ultimately won the right to have access to that library. Today, the Greenville Public Library serves all people, and that episode launched what would become for Jesse, a life of civil rights and political activism. He became Director of Operation Breadbasket and the founder of the venerable Rainbow PUSH Coalition – an intergenerational movement to uplift “the voiceless and downtrodden.” His passion to bring together people of all colors and creeds is a testament to his vision of unity, and oneness, as proclaimed by our nation’s motto – E Pluribus Unum – out of many, one. Operation PUSH became renowned for using direct action, selective buying and creative negotiations to encourage major corporations to be more inclusive, hire more Black executives, and support and contract with Black-owned businesses and corporations. The Rainbow Coalition was – and is – about dignity, fairness, justice, and hope. As I might say, Jesse worked to make the greatness’s of this country accessible and affordable for all. Jesse’s historic presidential runs in 1984 and 1988 were reflective of his strong will, guiding faith, and belief in possibility. Those two precedential campaigns came up short. But that didn’t stop him. Jesse’s efforts brought an end to the winner-take-all distribution of delegates, a creative device comparable to those that were prevalent post-Reconstruction. Where is the fairness when the candidate who gets 51 percent of the votes receives 100 percent of the delegates? Despite what may be said to the cont