WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) denied a request for the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol following the civil rights leader’s death at age 84.
Jackson’s family had asked that he be afforded the tribute in the Capitol rotunda, a practice historically reserved primarily for former presidents, select government officials and military figures. A source confirmed Johnson’s decision after CNN first reported it.
Recent requests for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Vice President Dick Cheney to lie in the Capitol were also denied. The last individual to lie in state in the rotunda was former President Jimmy Carter, who died last year at 100.
However, the Capitol has hosted other cultural and religious figures in the past. The Rev. Billy Graham lay in honor in 2018, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks was honored in 2005.
Jackson, a two-time presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, was widely recognized for his decades of civil rights advocacy. President Trump described him as a “force of nature.” A memorial service is expected in Chicago in the coming weeks.
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