After a long career of fighting for civil rights, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is visiting his home for one last time to lie in state at the South Carolina Capitol on Monday.
The final full honors from the state where he was born is a far cry from his childhood in segregated Greenville, where in 1960 he couldn’t go inside the local library’s much better funded whites-only branch to check out a book he needed.
Jackson led seven Black high school students into that segregated branch, where they sat down and read books and magazines until they were arrested. The branches closed, then quietly reopened for all.
With that action, Jackson launched his career — and crusade — fighting for equality for all. He would catch the attention of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and join the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday spoke to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring, “This is not Iraq. This is not endless.”
Hegseth, along with Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held the Trump administration’s first news briefing since Saturday’s strikes. President Donald Trump, while he’s conducted a few phone interviews with individual reporters, has not taken questions on camera and only released two videos since the operation began.
Hegseth said the operation had a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” to “destroy the missile threat” from Iran, destroy its navy and “no nukes.”
Global air travel chaos intensified on Monday as the U.S. and Israel continued to bombard Iran, which struck back at targets across the Middle East, leaving airports closed and stranding travelers including those in faraway areas who were scheduled to transit through the region.
Governments were scrambling to help their citizens get home after the conflict erupted on Saturday, throwing travel plans into turmoil.
Tourists, business travelers and religious pilgrims found themselves stuck unexpectedly in hotels, airports and on cruise ships, with no word on when many airports would reopen or when flights to and through the Middle East would resume. Governments told stranded citizens to shelter in place.
Airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, which are important hubs for travel between Europe, Africa and the West to Asia, remained closed after they were all directly hit by Iranian strikes.
Emily Kratz can be reached at krat1542@stthomas.edu.
