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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Siri Chilukuri in Chicago

‘He had a radiating aura’: Chicagoans say goodbye to hometown civil rights hero Jesse Jackson

People outside the Rainbow/Push Coalition building, where they came to pay their respects to civil rights leader Jesse Jackson on 26 February 2026.
People pay their respects to Jesse Jackson in Chicago on 26 February 2026. Photograph: Jim Vondruska/Reuters

Some were older, some were younger and some were strangers, but many more were friends – they had lined up down the blocks of Chicago in mercifully mild weather for a chance to say goodbye to the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

Friday was the last day of public visitation as Jackson lay in repose at the headquarters of his Rainbow/Push political activism coalition in the city he called home.

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