In Chicago, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. Is Remembered as a Giant Who Expanded the Meaning of Power

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

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Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

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March 2, 2026

By Jasmine Browley

Chicago gathered this week to mourn and honor the life of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., the longtime civil rights activist and political hopeful whose influence reshaped both grassroots organizing and national electoral politics.

Among those who eulogized Jackson was Rev. Al Sharpton, who spoke emotionally about the final hours of Jackson’s life and their decades-long bond. “He was about 27. I was 13, and ever since then, for 69 years, we bonded,” Sharpton said.

His Rainbow Coalition strategy brought together Black voters, working-class communities, young people, labor organizers, and marginalized groups across racial lines.

Keep reading to learn more about Honoring the life of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

More about the death of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Titan https://wordinblack.com/2026/02/rev-jesse-jackson-civil-rights-pioneer-dies/

More Breaking News here

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