House Speaker Mike Johnson has rejected a request to have the late Rev. Jesse Jackson lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.
The request was made by Jackson’s family after he died Tuesday at the age of 84 after a battle with a rare neurological disorder.
A source who spoke anonymously with CNN said Johnson rejected the request because of precedent, not politics.
“The source said that requests for conservative political activist Charlie Kirk and former Vice President Dick Cheney were also denied, and that the general practice is for select military officials and select government officials to lie in honor,” CNN reported.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has denied a request for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. to lie in honor at the United States Capitol, citing past precedent over how the deaths of other high-profile figures were handled, according to sources familiar with the matter.… pic.twitter.com/pTRkRLE3dr
— CNN (@CNN) February 20, 2026
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, by Friday the Jackson family had begun “exploring alternative locations in Washington, including Howard University, the Washington National Cathedral or the National Museum of African American History.”
“The family is also planning for Jackson to lie in honor at the state Capitol in South Carolina — making Jackson the first African American to do so,” the newspaper confirmed.
Jackson’s body will also lie in repose next week at the Chicago headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a nonprofit he founded in 1971 to pursue so-called social justice.
“Although his body is absent from us, his spirit suffuses and infuses us, and it charges us to continue with the work,” Jackson’s eldest child, Santita, told the Associated Press.
Some critics have suggested that Johnson’s rejection of the Jackson family’s request was rooted in racism:
A national disgrace & yet a other aggressive denial of even a pretense that Black people deserve to recognized for our contributions or Black history worthy of celebration! We won’t be erased. #RevJesseJackson taught us better than that! @civilrightsorg https://t.co/81CiTPiRaa
— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) February 20, 2026
Other critics have argued Jackson doesn’t deserve any recognition whatsoever given his prominent role in promoting racial hoaxes.
“Don’t get the sudden maga love affair with Jackson,” one critic wrote on social media, targeting those conservatives who have been praising Jackson. “[T]he man was a miscreant and race hustler and shakedown artist who wrote the script for [S]harpton and others like him.”
“He does not qualify,” another critic opined. “Do you think Al Sharpton would qualify? They ran in the same circle and ran a similar grift.”
It makes sense for members of congress but not for some retard race-baiter like Jackson.
— WordsAreArt (@HappyBDyAmerica) February 21, 2026
Why would he lie in state inside the Capitol? He was an activist, not an esteemed elected politician.
— El Tigre ⚓️ (@EltigreEsq) February 20, 2026
Jessie Jackson was a poverty pimp, just a shakedown artist like Sharpton. His legacy is not one to be celebrated.
— Bob Redmond (@BobRedmond4) February 21, 2026
Jesse “Hymietown” Jackson has no business to lie in honor at the Capitol. Didn’t serve in the military, not elected to Congress, wasn’t a cabinet member.
— Don (@BagmanCFO) February 20, 2026
If he would have been honest about the Democrats using black people for votes and never doing anything substantial for them. I would say yes. Hard NO for me.
— Looking4Parts (@SykesMd28996) February 21, 2026
President Donald Trump is one of the conservatives who have had words of praise for Jackson after his death.
“I knew him well, long before becoming President,” Trump posted on Truth Social this week. “He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’ He was very gregarious – Someone who truly loved people!”
“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand. He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!” the president added.
Trump also noted how he had helped Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
“I provided office space for him and his Rainbow Coalition, for years, in the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street,” he wrote.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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