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During his father’s memorial service on Saturday, Jesse Jackson Jr. offered a sharp rebuke of the tributes given by former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, noting that the trio shared one thing in common: they didn’t really know his father.
“Yesterday I listened for several hours of three United States presidents who do not know Jesse Jackson,” Jackson Jr. said on Saturday.
The reverend’s son called out the idea that his father’s life wasn’t defined by the ‘political order,’ but by a commitment to those who were marginalized.
“He maintained a tense relationship with the political order, not because the presidents were White or Black, but the demands of our message, the demands of speaking for the least of these — those who are disinherited, the damned, the dispossessed, the disrespected — demanded not Democratic or Republican solutions, but demanded a consistent, prophetic voice that at no point in time sold us out as a people,” Jackson Jr. continued.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Jill Biden and former President Joe Biden attend a public memorial service to celebrate the life of civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago, Ill., on March 6, 2026. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Jesse Jackson died at the age of 84 on February 17 in Chicago.
Following the death of Rev. Jackson, his son held a press conference where he requested politics be kept out of the services, and the focus to be kept on Jackson’s legacy.
“Do not bring your politics out of respect to Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the life that he lived, to these ongoing services. Come respectful, and come to say thank you. But these ongoing services are welcome to ALL—Democrat, Republican, liberal, and conservative. Right-wing, left-wing. Because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American,” Jackson Jr. said in February, one day after his father’s death.
Among the notable attendees paying their respects in Chicago for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson — a longtime civil rights leader, two-time Democratic presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — included former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rev. Al Sharpton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
BIDEN SAYS ‘I’M A H— OF A LOT SMARTER THAN MOST OF YOU’ TO CROWD AT JESSE JACKSON’S FUNERAL
Barack Obama and Joe Biden at Reverend Jesse L. Jackson’s Peoples Celebration of Life and Homegoing Services at the House of Hope arena on March 06, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)
Obama, Clinton and Biden each spoke at Jackson’s funeral.
Obama reportedly took aim at President Donald Trump during his speech, saying “every day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions.”
Bill Clinton called Jackson a friend, and recalled his conversation with the reverend during his impeachment.
Biden told mourners at Rev. Jesse Jackson’s memorial service Friday that he is “a h— of a lot smarter than most of you,” a pointed remark that stood out during his tribute to the late civil rights leader. Biden made the comment while recounting how he was mocked as a child for his stutter and how speech impediments are often mistaken for a lack of intelligence.
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Former US president Joe Biden speaks at a public memorial service to celebrate the life of civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson in Chicago, Illinois, on March 6, 2026. (Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP via Getty Images)
Overall, the memorial largely focused on Jackson’s legacy as a civil rights leader who helped shape the modern Democratic Party and broaden political participation in the United States.
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’ Patrick McGovern, Greg Norman-Diamond and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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