TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A stretch of West Carolina Street in Tallahassee will soon bear the name of one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights leaders, as the city honors the late Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. for his local impact and decades of visits to Florida’s Capital City.
The City of Tallahassee will recognize Jackson on Tuesday, Aug. 11, during a ceremony marking the renaming of W. Carolina Street from N. Adams Street to S. Copeland Street as Rev. Jesse Jackson Street. The Tallahassee City Commission passed a resolution approving the change on June 10, 2026.
The ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, 224 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Jackson (1941-2026) was a protégé of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and became an internationally recognized civil rights leader, a two-time presidential candidate and an ordained Baptist preacher. His work over six decades focused on civil rights, economic and social justice, gender equality and human rights.
Although he was not from Tallahassee, Jackson made repeated trips to the city over several decades. Published reports say the Greenville, South Carolina, native had a special affinity for Tallahassee because of its role in the Civil Rights Movement, including the Tallahassee Bus Boycott in 1956 that ended segregation on public buses in the community.
Jackson also met Rev. C. K. Steele, who was then pastor of Bethel Baptist Church and president of the Florida NAACP. Steele was recruited by Dr. King to help lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
From 1984, when Jackson first ran for president, to 2016, when he led a group of pastors, residents and politicians on a Sunday walk through downtown for “Souls to the Polls” on the last day of early voting in Leon County, Jackson traveled to Tallahassee at least 12 times. He visited churches and the campuses of Florida A&M University and Florida State University to address civil rights and human rights issues and to emphasize voter registration and voting.
Jackson’s national work included serving as student body president at North Carolina A&T State University, directing Operation Breadbasket for Dr. King in Chicago as the SCLC’s national economic justice initiative, and founding Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition, which later merged to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
He was also a leading advocate for global human rights, democracy and the end of apartheid in South Africa.
President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2000. Jackson also received more than 40 honorary doctorate degrees for his work in human and civil rights and nonviolent social change.
Jackson married his college sweetheart, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, in 1963. He was the father of six children.