On Friday, civil rights icon and former Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. announced that he is planning to step down from his leadership role as president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC).
Jackson first discussed his upcoming departure from RPC during a live stream broadcast on July 8, stating “I’m going to make a transition pretty soon,” continuing “I’ve been doing this stuff for 64 years. I was 18 years old…I’m going to get a new president for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.”
Despite a myriad of health issues, Jackson has continued to be active in the civil rights space. In 2017, Jackson announced “that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. In early 2021, he had gallbladder surgery and later that year was treated for COVID-19 including a stint at a physical therapy-focused facility. He was hospitalized again in November 2021 for a fall that caused a head injury.”
Jackson was a protégé of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and RPC’s “origins stemmed from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket.”
RPC was launched in 1996 when Jackson merged two of his other organizations, People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) and the National Rainbow Coalition. PUSH was formed in 1971 “to improve Black communities’ economic conditions across” the nation, and the National Rainbow Coalition was established in 1984 “with the goal of obtaining equal rights for all Americans.”
RPC is headquartered in Chicago, and is “a multi-racial, multi-issue, progressive, international membership organization fighting for social change,” aiming “to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.”
In a statement released on Friday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson referred to Jackson as “an architect of the soul of Chicago,” adding, “Through decades of service, he has led the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and social justice…His faith, his perseverance, his love and his relentless dedication to people inspire all of us to keep pushing for a better tomorrow.”
To date, RPC has funded more than $6 million dollars in scholarships for students as well as assisting more than 4,000 families, helping them to avoid foreclosure.
While Jackson will be formally stepping down from his role, he did say, “I’m going to work along with the new president and our board, and we’ll have a new president who will, in fact be working here day to day. I want to see us grow and prosper. We have the ability to build on what we’ve established over the years,” said Jackson.