Watch: Rev. Jesse Jackson lies in state at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) — Cross-country memorial services for the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. are scheduled to begin Thursday in Chicago, the city the late civil rights leader called his home.

Rev. Jesse Jackson will lie in state at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters. Watch in the video player above.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s disciple and two-time presidential candidate will lie in state for two days at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH coalition before events in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, where he was born.

He watches: A look at Jesse Jackson’s decades of civil rights advocacy

“The outpouring of love and support we have received from around the world has been abundant and profound,” Jackson family members said in a recent statement.

Jackson died last week at the age of 84 after struggling with a rare neurological disorder that affected his movement and ability to speak in his final years.

Memories have already flowed in from around the world, and several US states, including Minnesota, Iowa and North Carolina, have lowered flags in his honour.

But perhaps nowhere was his death felt so keenly as in the nation’s third-largest city, where Jackson lived for decades and raised his six children, including his congressman son.

Bouquets of flowers have been left outside the family’s Tudor-style home on the city’s south side for days. Public schools offered their condolences, and city trains used digital screens to display Jackson’s image and his famous slogan, “I’m Somebody!”.

His causes, both in the United States and abroad, were countless: defending the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, job opportunities, education, and health care. He has scored diplomatic victories with world leaders and, through the Rainbow PUSH coalition, taken cries for black pride and self-determination to corporate boardrooms and pressured CEOs to make America a more open and equitable society.

“We honor him and his hard-earned legacy as a freedom fighter, philosopher, and devoted shepherd to his family and community here in Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement.

Next week, a ceremony honoring Jackson will be held at the South Carolina Statehouse, followed by public services. According to the Rainbow PUSH agenda, Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to make remarks, but the governor’s office said Thursday that his participation has not yet been confirmed. Jackson spent his childhood and activism in South Carolina.

Details of the services in Washington have not yet been announced. However, he will not lie in state in the US Capitol rotunda after House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office rejected a request for a memorial.

The two-week event will conclude next week with a large Celebration of Life Gathering at a Chicago megachurch and, finally, homecoming services at the Rainbow PUSH Alliance headquarters.

Family members said services will be open to everyone.

His eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., recently told reporters: “His life is broad enough to cover the full range of what it means to be an American.” “We’re just asking people to come forward and be respectful in the context of the extraordinary life he lived.”