Mother of Rev. Jackson Hailed for Birthing “Good Fruit”

Pfleger to Jesse: “We need your voice more today”

By Chinta Strausberg

Chicago Pastors came out strong Saturday at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters for the celebration of life for Helen Burns Jackson, the mother of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., who died September 9, 2015 at the age of 92 after a lengthy illness.

Her grandson, Jonathan Jackson, couldn’t hold back his tears when reflecting on his grandmother and others thanked her for bearing “good fruit” in giving birth to Rev. Jackson

Introduced by Salem Baptist Church’s Pastor James Meeks, Saint Sabina’s Father Michael L. Pfleger made powerful and passionate remarks about Burns Jackson. Rushing from the 79th Street Renaissance festival, Pfleger said he had to come by and “lift up” the Jackson family.

“I come to celebrate the life of his mother, Helen Burns Jackson, her works, her worth and her witness,” said Pfleger. “I come to thank Ms. Jackson for giving life to Jesse Louis Jackson but not just giving him life but creating an atmosphere where like Mary and Joseph where her son can grow up and age and grace and wisdom, an atmosphere that provided him with a conscious for justice, a conviction for righteousness and the courage to make the playing field equal in America…the fight is still going on.”

Quoting the bible, Pfleger said, “The word says we shall be known by the fruit that we bear. Well Ms. Jackson, you bore rich fruit. We all eat from that fruit. We’re all being nourished…blessed by that fruit. We’re all being blessed from that fruit. That fruit has helped change the landscape of America.”

Pfleger said to Rev. Jackson, who was in South Carolina, “We support…love you, but we never needed your prophetic voice and your historical perspective than we need right now in America. Things are not getting better. They are getting worse.

“Poverty, unemployment and homelessness…homicides are up, shootings are up education is falling part and guns are part of our wardrobe. Rev. Jackson, we need your voice,” bellowed Pfleger. “So, we strengthen you. We comfort you. We wrap our arms around you and while we grieve the loss of your mother, we celebrate her legacy.

“We celebrate the fruit that she bore, and this morning we join with the party that’s going on on the other side of Jordan. Wear your crown of victory. Put on your robe…washed in the blood. Sit at the welcome table and see the Master’s face and he said, “Good job, good job. Ms. Jackson. You raised a hell of a son,” he said to a thunderous applause.

In a video of Rep. Bobby Rush (D-1st), Mrs. Burns Jackson was herald as a hero and a “great woman of distinction.” The video was filmed while Rush was on the House floor introducing a resolution in honor of Jackson’s mother. He called her “the epitome ’’of a good fruit-bearing tree” and thanked her for raising “two great sons,” Rev. Jackson and his brother, song writer Charles Jackson.

Rush said Mrs. Jackson was a cosmetologist who was viewed as the “pillar of her community…. She was indeed the mother of the movement.”

Referring to the bible, Pastor Meeks talked about Moses’ mother, Jochebed. “The important thing that we learned from Jochebed is that mother’s have to hide their son from Pharaoh who wanted to kill him.”

Speaking to mothers across the nation, Meeks said, “Don’t be afraid to hide your children. Don’t let them be exposed to everything…. You got to hide your kids from stuff like Mother Helen had to hide Reverend from a whole lot of racism until couldn’t take it no more.”

Meeks also referred to Hannah, the mother of Samuel he said means “acts of God.” Meeks said mothers have to pray for their children. “That is what Mother Helen did. She prayed for her son….” Meeks referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus, a man she “had enough sense to know that there was something inside of her son.

“Thank you. Mother Helen. You knew that it was something inside of your son…. You knew that your son had the capacity to change the world, and he did change the world because by running for president he did open the door for Barack Obama to eventually become president. Thank you Mother Helen for not giving up…for praying for him…,” Meeks said introducing Jonathan Jackson.

With tears streaming down his face, Jonathan Jackson said, “She didn’t have thousand books at her house, but she had one book. She had the bible. It was tattered up. Every page had been turned, and as she met her transition from hospital from home to assisted living to hospital and you carry fewer of your remaining objects with you. She kept her bible with her.”

Speaking to teenage mothers, Jackson said, “God is with you if you just turn and trust in his word because my great-grandmother was a teenage mother. My grandmother was a teenage mother, and my mother was a teenage mother. I had the blessing of being raised with all of my parents.”

Jackson thanked the ministers for coming to his grandmother’s celebration of life. Jackson said Ms. Jackson had been sick for the past two-years. “Her health started accelerating in deterioration after my brother’s indictment.

“This was her first grand baby, and this slave-loving. Blood-thirsty nation wants to lock somebody up, but she hung on and held in there all the way up to the time he was given permission to visit his own grandmother,” said Jackson his voice cracking. “After she saw him, her life has been completed.” He said she loved him into he arms one more time.

Jackson thanked a number of people including former President Bill Clinton for confirming he would attend Jackson’s funeral Monday. He thanked his grandmother for giving birth to his uncle Chuck (Charles) Jackson, a well-known songwriter. “Thank you for being a teenage mother…. We thank God for the journey.”

Rev. Acree took up the offering

Rev. Janette Wilson said, “Mrs. Jackson’s reminds us it doesn’t matter where you start. It’s where you end up. She had a rocky road at the beginning, but look at what a blessing she’s been to the world by giving birth to her two sons and grandchildren…. It just shows you what God does with ordinary people.”

Interviewed leaving the celebration, Activist Zakiyyah S. Muhammad said, “I thank her for birthing such a great man like the Rev. Jesse Jackson who has been so wonderful in the community exposing what is wrong…. I thank her for that gift she gave us.”

Rev. Acree said, “We have lost a great woman who bore some great fruit. If she had given us the gift of Rev. Jackson, African Americans and other people would not have accomplished so many obstacles we have in this country. She gave America a great gift in Rev. Jackson.” Quoting Bonita Parker, a PUSH official, Acree said, “Great things come in small packages….”

Viewing services for Rev. Jackson’s mother, Helen Burns Jackson, will be held on Sunday, September 13, 2015 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the historic Springfield Baptist Church, 600 E. McBee Ave., Greenville, SC, where Rev. Kippie Brown is pastor.

From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, there will be a musical celebration at the same church.

Viewing of Mrs. Jackson will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Monday, September 14, 2015 at the Springfield Baptist Church followed by an 11 a.m. funeral service.

Internment will be held at the Resthaven Memorial Gardens, 1655 Piedmont Hwy, Piedmont, SC followed by a repast at the Long Branch Baptist Church, 28 Bolt St., Greenville SC, where Rev. Sean Dogan is pastor.

In lieu of flowers, contributions are to be made payable to the Jackson Foundation in the name of Helen Jackson for musical scholarships, 6845 South Constance Avenue, Chicago, IL 60649.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.