At City Council, Mayor Johnson pays tribute to Jesse Jackson, urges Chicago to honor him ‘with action’

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday the “power exists in all of us” to honor Rev. Jesse Jackson “with action,” and urged the City Council and all Chicagoans to do just that to honor “one of the most consequential civil rights leaders of our time.”

“We can best honor Reverend Jackson by `keeping hope alive,’“ the mayor said before leading the Council in a moment of silence for Jackson and his grieving family. “We do that by organizing with our neighbors, advocating on their behalf and investing in the people of Chicago. In the loving memory of Reverend Jackson, let us go forth in building a just, equitable and thriving city and nation.”

Johnson has said he would not have risen from single-digit obscurity to the mayor’s office without standing on Jackson’s shoulders. On Wednesday, the mayor talked about the poignant personal advice that Jackson, his mentor and role model, gave him when Johnson was “experiencing one of the more difficult times in my time as an organizer” for the Chicago Teachers Union.

“Rev. Jackson reminded me that, before people were on that Edmund Pettus Bridge, it took an awful lot to organize city to city to get to Selma,” Johnson said. “That day everybody and their mother was on that bridge. But in reality that wasn’t the case. That in most instances, transformation and change takes place by just the work of a few.”

The mayor said Jackson’s wisdom and guidance had a “profound impact on me and I’m grateful to him forever.” But the city owes Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84, “a debt of gratitude for his life’s work.”

“Together, Dr. King and Rev. Jackson made Chicago a battleground for fair housing, equality and economic justice. They spread a message of empowerment, equality and justice worldwide,” the mayor said.

“No matter what the issue or challenge, he stood on the side of working people and… affirmed their humanity by fighting for equal access to education, housing, employment and health care. In doing so, he cultivated a rainbow of power that could weather any storm.”