House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has denied a request to allow the late civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
The family of Jackson, who died this week at age 84 following a lengthy illness, initially made the request, the Hill reported on Friday.
“The Speaker considered past precedent of mostly reserving the practice for former presidents and select former government officials and military honorees,” the outlet said.
However, Jackson “is expected to be memorialized in Chicago in the coming weeks, according to his family,” the outlet said.
The former presidential candidate passed away Tuesday after being hospitalized in November following a fight with the neuromuscular disease progressive supranuclear palsy, according to Breitbart News.
The last individual to lie in state at the Capitol was former President Jimmy Carter. According to Newsmax, requests were made and denied to have prominent figures such as Turning Point USA founder and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, lie in state at the Rotunda.
“There is no specific rule about who qualifies for the honor, a decision that is controlled by concurrence from both the House and Senate,” the article explains.
The Hill report said figures including Reverend Billy Graham and civil rights leader Rosa Parks have lain in honor at the Capitol.
“In 2020, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., another veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda after a ceremony honoring his legacy was held outside on the Capitol steps due to pandemic restrictions at the time,” the Newsmax report stated.
President Donald Trump reflected on Jackson’s life after his passing, writing in a social media post that he “knew him well, long before becoming President.”
Trump further wrote:
He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and “street smarts.” He was very gregarious – Someone who truly loved people! Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left, Democrats ALL, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way. … 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 concluded, “He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
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