Final Farewells For Rev. Jesse Jackson Put Focus On His Impact On Black Women Leaders

Since the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s death on Feb. 17 at age 84, leaders from across the globe have been giving thanks for Jackson’s contributions to society.

And the details of his final homegoing events Friday and Saturday in Chicago were coordinated by Tarrah Cooper Wright, CEO of public relations and political consulting firm Rise Strategy Group, and Alexandra Sims-Jones, president and founder of APS & Associates.

“We will see the best of our country and our world,” Cooper Wright said. “People all want to celebrate the humanity, the humility and the moral compass the reverend had.”

She and Sims-Jones are two of the many Black women who say their professional trajectories have been deeply impacted by the civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH social justice nonprofit.

Others include Minyon Moore, activist and chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention; Donna Brazile, political strategist and member of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee; the Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO for National Council of Negro Women; and Keisha Sutton James, campaign manager for Alvin Bragg, the first Black person elected district attorney of Manhattan, New York.

Many of these women say the intersectionality with Jackson still guides them.

Sims-Jones’ grandfather was instrumental in getting Jackson his residence when he served as the first shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997.

Her father, a member of the Omega Psi Phi, the same fraternity in which Jackson was a member, volunteered and knocked on doors for the reverend during his presidential campaigns. Sims-Jones came to Chicago with her own nonprofit focused on voter registration. She campaigned and worked with former Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers Jr. and worked on former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“When I came to Chicago and met reverend for the first time, it was such an honor,” Sims-Jones said. “I remember … stopping at Rainbow PUSH and learning about voter registration, which was a passion of mine. I learned the origins of how Rainbow PUSH was responsible for the way so many learned how to organize.

“I later worked on the Obama campaign, and they used the same tactics that Rev. (Jackson) created,” Sims-Jones said. “Reverend was a progressive before it was popular. He believed in women’s equality and pushed it throughout his staff. And throughout the work he did, he was always quick to support women running for office and in leadership roles. You’ll find that a lot of the people who ran PUSH are powerful women. I never forget whose shoulders I’m standing on.”

Sims-Jones is a co-organizer of Black Bench Chicago, a training program for Black public affairs leaders. It’s an endeavor she shares with Cooper Wright.

Cooper Wright, who grew up in Chicago, said Jackson was one of the most accessible leaders. She remembers the many times she or her team would call him and his staff to ask for advice, and he answered every time.

She used his guidance to solve clients’ challenges and encourage business owners to do more minority hiring for professional services, including legal and public affairs.

“He wasn’t just focused on solving one person’s problem, he was focused on leveling the playing field and giving everyone more access,” Cooper Wright said. “If you look at who he surrounded himself with, starting with his brilliant wife, Mrs. (Jacqueline) Jackson, to Rev. Willie Barrow to Rev. Janette Wilson, he understood not only women’s ability to execute and get things done, but also their power of collaboration.”

Family of Rev. Jesse Jackson honors legacy of civil rights icon

Cooper Wright said Jackson taught her to bring everyone along on your journey. “You’re always looking around the room making sure there’s someone older than you, someone younger than you, someone who doesn’t look like you,” she said. “We’re all more successful when we bring that rainbow along with us for every experience.”

Had Jackson not laid the foundation, Sims-Jones said, she wouldn’t be where she is today. “No organizer would,” she said. “He mapped it out for all of us. … He paved that way for organizing and Democratic politics.”

Brazile said you cannot talk about Jackson’s achievements without talking about women. “We were the left out, the last, but he put us in the center of action, and here we are,” said the political strategist. “When I think about (former U.S. Sen.) Carol Moseley Braun, who was a Jackson delegate in ‘88; when I think about (U.S. Rep.) Maxine Waters, a Jackson delegate in ’84, when I think about (Oakland Mayor) Barbara Lee, who worked with Shirley (Chisholm), and then assisted us in ‘84 — this is part of who Rev. Jackson was.”

Brazile said she did not grow up in a movement that was male dominated. “He had no problems putting us in the room with the boys. I never felt like I was a second class citizen in Rev. Jackson’s world,” she said.

Minyon Moore, who worked for Operation PUSH in the ’80s, said she considers volunteering her avocation. What she learned from Jackson: “Return every call. There’s no big I’s, no little you’s. People are people. Most people can never get access to anything, and understand when they call there, they want something, but they might not always have the right words to say it.”

Jackson was always surrounded by strong women at Operation PUSH, Moore said. “He knew no other way than to cultivate us,” she said. “Start with his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, she’s an organizer, a movement person. I looked up to Rev. Barrow, who was my mentor at Operation PUSH. Betty Magness and Rev. Janette Wilson — all of these women help form and shape how Reverend Jackson treated us all.”

Moore said these women helped propel Jackson to becoming who he was. “One of the things that he did for us is make sure you take your values with you wherever you go,” she said. “When I went into a room, I didn’t just go in with Rev. Jackson, I went in with all those women that had surrounded him and made him understand, to the world, that we were important and that we should be listened to.”

Campaign manager Sutton James belongs to the Daughters of the Movement, descendants of those on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. As the granddaughter of Percy Sutton, an activist, a Tuskegee Airman, a Freedom Rider, the legal representative for Malcolm X, and the first Black man to run for mayor of New York City, Sutton James refers to Jackson as an uncle. She said her grandfather mentored Jackson and supported Jackson’s family financially while he was running for office. She found some of the canceled checks when she cleaned out her grandparents’ home.

There was a lot Jackson accomplished in his life, she said. “But to me,” she said, “the biggest thing he accomplished was making it possible for Barack Obama to be elected. Period.”

The Daughters of the Movement, she said, are focused on continuing to lift up the engagement conversation — political engagement, engagement with social movements, with civic organizations — to ensure that people stay vigilant “because that was what was passed on to us, and we feel a responsibility to pass that on.”

“Our ancestors worked hard all the time, and they would want us to continue marching on, literally,” Sutton James said. “We keep moving because that’s what he would have wanted for us to do, and so we support one another in enabling us to find the strength physically and emotionally to do the work in these incredibly brutal times.”

We have to take care of one another, she said. “This was built into my value system by Rev. Jackson and others like my grandfather and other people who I was exposed to,” Sutton James said. “Understanding the history and the sacrifices that they made, I feel very strongly about making my ancestors proud.”

Arline-Bradley’s lineage stems from South Carolina, Jackson’s home state. Born and raised in New Jersey, all her summers were spent in South Carolina.

“As painful as South Carolina’s history was and is, he personified what it meant to have South Carolina soil under your feet on a global mission,” said the head of the National Council of Negro Women. “I am a Black woman preacher. I am a mother, a wife, an entrepreneur, activist, and what Rev. Jackson did was put women in position.

“What Rev. Jackson did was make sure women spoke in pulpits,” Arline-Bradley said. “He was one of the few Black men that honored women’s gifts in ministry. He was one of the few people who understood that diversity, equity, inclusion was actually a lifestyle that corporations could activate in and he did it in Black communities and Black spaces too, because DEI has been a problem in all of our industries — in faith, in education and in business — where there has been this massive gender divide between us and outside of our own community.”

Cooper Wright is hopeful the Chicago homegoing ceremonies will showcase the beauty of locking arms, being hopeful and ready to work for the future Jackson envisioned.

A public service will be held Friday at House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., Chicago, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and services beginning at 11 a.m. It will be livestreamed at jessejacksonlegacy.com.

A Saturday service will be at Rainbow PUSH headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., Chicago, with doors opening at 9 a.m. and services beginning at 10 a.m.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, along with former first lady Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be in attendance at the South Side church.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Judge Greg Mathis, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the Rev. Otis Moss III and Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts are slated to speak at the service.

Performers include LeAndria Johnson, Fred Nelson, gospel singer Darius Brooks, Jennifer Hudson, Bebe Winans and Pastor Marvin Winans.

Gospel artists Marvin Sapp, Hezekiah Walker and R&B singer Terisa Griffin, will perform at PUSH on Saturday, with a special musical tribute by Stevie Wonder.