Illinois Rep. Kam Buckner introduces bill to rename part of Dan Ryan Expressway for Rev. Jesse Jackson

Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) announced Wednesday that he has introduced legislation to rename part of Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway in honor of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Buckner said he introduced HB5726 Tuesday. The legislation would designate the Dan Ryan between 47th Street and 95th Street as the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Memorial Highway.

"That corridor isn't just concrete. It's a front porch for Black Chicago. It's Bronzeville, Greater Grand Crossing, Chatham, Roseland, generations of families, churches, small businesses, and organizers and everyday people who built this city — even when the city was not built for them," Buckner said in an Instagram video. "And Reverend Jackson — you can't deny that he made America answer questions it didn't want to answer. He made power explain itself. He made room for people who were told to stay outside.

Buckner wrote that it was fitting that one of Chicago's most traveled corridors would honor a leader who meant so much to the whole country.

"My father used to talk about the Dan Ryan as something that divided the city. He grew up in Bronzeville before the expressway was built," Buckner wrote in an Instagram post. "But Reverend Jackson spent his life connecting people — across neighborhoods, across movements, across this country and this world."

It was not fully clear whether the legislation would add Jackson's name as an honorary name in addition to the name of the Dan Ryan Expressway, or replace the Dan Ryan name altogether on the affected stretch. 

Jackson died last month at the age of 84.