DETROIT (AP) – The Rev. Jesse Jackson says there would be no federal holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the work of John Conyers. Conyers, the longest-serving black member of Congress, died Sunday at his Detroit home, two years after leaving the U.S. House. Jackson, the Chicago-based civil rights leader, tells The Associated Press that even some of Conyers’ allies doubted that he could persuade Congress to create a public holiday for King. Jackson says Conyers’ death and the recent death of Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore have been “real painful.” Jackson says “it’s like a hole in the sky.” Conyers was in Congress for nearly 53 years.