South Carolina H 5197: Jesse Jackson sympathy

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5197 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 18, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5197

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A house RESOLUTION

TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF Reverend Jesse 
Louis Jackson, TO HONOR HIS REMARKABLE COMMITMENT as an American Civil rights 
activist, and to EXTEND THE DEEPEST SYMPATHY of the south Carolina House of 
REpresentatives TO HIS LARGE AND LOVING FAMILY AND HIS MANY FRIENDS.

Whereas, the members of 
the South Carolina House of Representatives were deeply saddened to learn of 
the death of Reverend Jesse Jackson at the age of eighty-four on February 17, 
2026, after suffering for more than a decade with progressive supranuclear 
palsy, a neurological disease; and

Whereas, a native son 
of Greenville, he was born on October 8, 1941, as Jesse Louis Burns and changed 
his surname to Jackson after his mother married his stepfather. He was reared 
under Jim Crow segregation laws which he accepted until the Montgomery bus 
boycott of 1955. He attended Sterling High School in Greenville, where he was 
elected student class president, graduated tenth in his class in 1959, and 
earned letters in baseball, football, and basketball; and

Whereas, after 
graduation, young Jackson rejected a minor league professional baseball 
contract to attend the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. He 
transferred to North Carolina A&T, an historically black university in 
Greensboro, North Carolina, where he played quarterback on the football team 
and was elected student body president. He became active in local civil rights 
protests against segregated libraries, theaters, and restaurants, and he earned 
a bachelor's degree in 1964; and

Whereas, he continued 
to prepare for his storied career by studying at Chicago Theological Seminary 
where he received a scholarship. He left in 1966 three courses shy of finishing 
his degree and was later awarded a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological 
Seminary in 2000. He was ordained in 1968 after beginning his work with Martin 
Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 
1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches after which he was charged 
with establishing a frontline office for the SCLC in Chicago; and

Whereas, in 1966, Reverend 
Jackson was chosen to head the Chicago branch of the SCLC's economic arm, 
Operation Breadbasket, and was promoted to national director in 1967. Operation 
Breadbasket had been started by the Atlanta leadership of the SCLC as a job 
placement agency for blacks; and

Whereas, as he became 
one of the world's best known Black activists, Reverend Jackson would go on to 
form numerous organizations which eventually amalgamated into the Rainbow PUSH 
Coalition; and

Whereas, Reverend 
Jackson served from 1971 to 1997 in the United States Senate as a shadow 
senator from the District of Columbia and launched two campaigns for President 
in 1984 and again in 1988; and

Whereas, he leaves 
behind to cherish his memory his beloved wife, Jaqueline Brown, and six fine 
children, two of whom have served as members of the United States House of 
Representatives. He was blessed to see the continuation of his family legacy in 
numerous grandchildren; and

Whereas, the members of 
the South Carolina House of Representatives are grateful for the life and 
legacy of Jesse Jackson and for the example of dedicated service and 
inspirational leadership he set for all who knew him. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

That the members of the 
South Carolina House of Representatives, 
by this resolution, remember and celebrate the life of Reverend Jesse Louis 
Jackson, honor his remarkable commitment as an American Civil Rights activist, and 
extend the deepest sympathy of the South Carolina House to his large and loving 
family and his many friends.

Be it further resolved 
that a copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Reverend Jesse 
Louis Jackson.

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This web page was last updated on February 18, 2026 at 01:08 PM