The Rev. Jesse Jackson's body will lie in state at the South Carolina Statehouse March 2, allowing the public to visit and pay their final respects, the governor's office announced Monday.
The announcement followed requests from the Jackson family and several state lawmakers, the governor's office said.
Jackson, a Greenville native and civil rights leader, died Feb. 17 at his Chicago home surrounded by family. He was 84.
Jackson was born in a tiny house on Haynie Street just outside of Greenville's downtown. A portion of the street will be named in his honor.
Gov. Henry McMaster has also directed flags atop the Statehouse to be lowered half-staff from sunrise to sunset on March 2 to honor Jackson and his legacy.
The governor's office said more details will be released at a later date.
Jackson's organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said memorial services for Jackson will be scheduled beyond Chicago, including in South Carolina. He will lie in repose this week at organization's Chicago headquarters.
A public service will be held in Chicago at House of Hope, a 10,000-seat church, on March 6, followed by private homegoing services the next day at Rainbow PUSH, which will be livestreamed.
Jackson was the quarterback at segregated Sterling High School, where he led seven other Black classmates into the whites only public library in Greenville in 1960 where they sat and read books and magazines until they were arrested. It was the start of a long civil rights career during which Jackson became a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Jackson went on to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. He continued to be active in his home state, pushing in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor and in 2015 by advocating for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina Statehouse grounds after nine Black worshipers were killed in a racist shooting at a Charleston church.
