NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A public procession honoring Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. will take place Saturday in Nashville, with arrival expected between 2 and 2:30 p.m.
The procession will depart from Lewis & Wright Funeral Home, travel down Clarksville Pike, turn left on Jefferson Street, then right on Rosa Parks Boulevard before ending at Public Square Park. Community members are encouraged to be mindful of traffic along the route.
The NAACP Nashville Branch said it joins communities nationwide in mourning the civil rights leader, calling him a “powerful moral voice” whose work advanced voting rights, economic opportunity and educational access.
“‘I am somebody’ is one of the things that resonated most with me as a young person,” said Timothy Hughes, president of the NAACP Nashville Branch. “It made me believe that I could be anything I put my mind to.”
Rev. Jackson, founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and recipient of the NAACP’s President’s Award and Spingarn Medal, built multiracial coalitions and urged Americans to “keep hope alive” — a message local leaders said continues to inspire the work ahead.
North Nashville lost a passionate advocate and historian with the passing of Lorenzo Washington. I had the pleasure to get to know him while working on a story and left with a wealth of information and appreciation for how Jefferson Street shaped the sound of Music City. Aaron Cantrell shows us how Lorenzo will forever be part of that.
- Carrie Sharp
