My Remarks at Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Celebration of Life | by Barack Obama | Mar, 2026 | Medium

The book of Isaiah, God is looking for a messenger to guide a hardened and resistant people. The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go with us?” To which Isaiah replies, “Here I am, Lord! Send me.” To Mother Jackson and the Jackson family, to President and Mrs. Biden, President and Secretary Clinton, Vice President Harris, Pastor Dates — my old friend — though he’s looking good, Reverend Meeks, Reverend Jenkins. It is an honor to join you today to celebrate the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, a man who, when the poor and the dispossessed needed a champion and the country needed healing, stepped forward again and again and again and said, “Send me.” Reverend Jackson’s immense gifts were apparent at an early age, even if his circumstances conspired to try to hold him back. Born out of wedlock to a teenage mom, growing up under the oppressive cloud of segregation, confined to schools, sports facilities, movie theatres that were separate and unequal. There was a world where, on Than

The book of Isaiah, God is looking for a messenger to guide a hardened and resistant people. The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go with us?” To which Isaiah replies, “Here I am, Lord! Send me.” To Mother Jackson and the Jackson family, to President and Mrs. Biden, President and Secretary Clinton, Vice President Harris, Pastor Dates — my old friend — though he’s looking good, Reverend Meeks, Reverend Jenkins. It is an honor to join you today to celebrate the Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, a man who, when the poor and the dispossessed needed a champion and the country needed healing,