Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.
WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has denied a request for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Jackson’s family made the request to Johnson after the civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate died Tuesday at the age of 84, the sources said.
CNN was first to report the development. The practice of lying in state or honor in the Capitol is typically reserved for America’s most distinguished individuals. A GOP leadership source said that in denying the family's request, the speaker looked to past precedent where the practice has been reserved for former presidents, military leaders and other top government officials. The GOP source noted that recent requests for former Vice President Dick Cheney and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk to lie in honor had been denied. Yet a handful of private citizens have lain in honor in the majestic Rotunda. That short list includes civil rights leader Rosa Parks in 2005 and Capitol Police officers who died in the 1998 shooting and after the Jan. 6 attack. The Rev. Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist minister and evangelist, lain in honor in 2018. The most recent American to be honored in the Rotunda was former President Jimmy Carter, who lay in state Jan. 7-9, 2025. Typically, both the House speaker and the Senate majority leader would need to sign off on any request for someone to lie in state or honor in the Rotunda. A concurrent resolution would then need to be passed by both chambers. Jackson came to prominence during the Civil Rights Era, when he participated in demonstrations alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. He would twice run for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988, but was unsuccessful. Two of his sons would follow him into politics, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., who served from 1995 to 2012 and is running for Congress again; and current Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill. Black leaders slammed Johnson's decision to deny the Jackson family's request. “Mike Johnson will defend a president who wants to unlawfully nationalize elections, but won’t authorize a civil rights legend to lie in honor. That tells you everything you need to know about Mike Johnson and his gross disregard for our Constitution and our democracy,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “Rev. Jesse Jackson preached to all Americans to Keep Hope Alive, and to dream of a nation where all people are treated with dignity and respect. No message could be more fitting for all Americans to embrace at this time,” the NAACP leader said.
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