The Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network (NAN), hosted a special tribute to the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his weekly rally on Saturday at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem.
A high-profile delegation of elected officials attended, including Mayor Zoharan Mamdani, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and State Attorney General Letitia James.
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The tribute marked a full circle in a relationship that began when Sharpton was a teenager. At the time, Jackson appointed the young Sharpton as youth director of Operation Breadbasket in Brooklyn. In the decades that followed, the two men organized on the front lines of the nation’s most defining moments for racial justice.
The location of the tribute carried significant historical weight. Jackson personally named NAN’s headquarters “The House of Justice,” and Mother AME Zion Church was the site of Jackson’s final public speech.
To the family
I am so sorry for your loss. Rev. Jesse Jackson will surely be miss. May his soul rest in peace. Just remember that Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can not heal.
Because of Rev. Jessie Jackson a lot of us nobodies are somebody! Sincerest condolences to the family.