Mourners honor Rev. Jesse Jackson at final funeral service

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s friends and family, and admirers who didn’t personally know him, gathered Saturday for an uplifting yet somber culmination of weeks of memorials that captivated thousands throughout Chicago and his home state of South Carolina.

Hundreds of people packed the chapel at Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters, 930 E. 50th St., to pay the final tribute to the civil rights icon before being laid to rest later Saturday at Oak Woods Cemetery.

Mourners stood and clapped along to a live band and choir to kick off the service as an orange, sunlit tint peered through the building’s stained glass windows.

While no U.S. presidents were in attendance, Saturday’s service didn’t lack a star-studded presence. Music icon Stevie Wonder was expected to perform and actor Chris Tucker was among a list of speakers.

Others in attendance included Mr. T, the 1980s television star; actor Jussie Smollett; Mayor Brandon Johnson; Alds. David Moore (17th) and William Hall (6th); U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky; former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush; and numerous international dignitaries.

The stage was filled with a choir, backed by white, pink and red flowers, and a photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Jackson met in 1965 during the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama.