Overview
- Thousands filled the 10,000-seat House of Hope on Chicago’s South Side on March 6 as three former presidents and Vice President Kamala Harris delivered eulogies alongside leaders including Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
- Performances included Jennifer Hudson and gospel artists BeBe and Marvin Winans at the public service, with Stevie Wonder slated to perform at the private funeral on March 7 at Rainbow PUSH headquarters.
- The Chicago events cap a multi-city remembrance that drew large crowds, following earlier observances in the city and a lying-in-state at the South Carolina State House.
- Washington plans were tabled when House Speaker Mike Johnson declined the family’s request for Jackson to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, citing historical precedent for the space.
- Jackson, a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and founder of Operation PUSH and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition who ran for president in 1984 and 1988, died Feb. 17 after a long decline linked to progressive supranuclear palsy.