Chicago barber shares moment of cutting Rev. Jesse Jackson's hair for last time

A Chicago barber and entrepreneur is grateful for the special connection he had with Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Larry Roberts Jr. of Larry's Barber Colleges, like many across the city and the world, is remembering Jackson, including cutting his hair for the last time.

The old clippers passed down to Roberts first belonged to a barber who cut the hair of superstars.

"Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Charles Oakley ..." he said.

It's the clients who make the clippers special.

"These same clippers I used to service Rev. Jesse Jackson," Roberts said.

A barber can get close to the people who sit in his chair. Roberts learned that over the decades, and his students learn it, too, at Larry's Barber Colleges.

"When they sit in this chair, we're everything to them. They have to entrust in us in their space with razors, with color, with relaxer, with clippers in our hair, right. they have to entrust us," he said.

A few weeks ago, Roberts said Rev. Jackson and his family entrusted him — sharing the photo of when he was cutting Jackson's hair at his house. He said he cut his hair a few times in the last year, but that was the last.

"It was kind of emotional, but I think that I kept my cool, you know," Roberts said.

Kept his cool and cracked some jokes to put the whole family at ease.

"So, Mother Jackson, you know, I told her, I said, 'I'm going to put 'keep hope alive' in the back of his head,' you know, and she said, 'and you ain't going to be alive to keep hope alive, right,'" he said laughing.

He finished the cut and remembers saying goodbye felt different.

"He grabbed my hand real tight as he always did, and I pretty much hugged him, you know, kissed him on the top of his head and just told him, 'I love you,' you know, 'I love you, Rev. Jackson,'" Roberts said.

He holds onto those special clippers and the memory of a special client.

"Definitely an honor that I was able to give him his last haircut," he said.