Jesse Jackson Is Leaving His Civil Rights Organization
The Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to step down from leading the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Chicago civil rights organization he founded in 1971, his son’s congressional office said Friday.
A representative of Democratic Rep. Jonathan Jackson of Illinois confirmed the long-time civil rights leader would be retiring from the organization.
The elder Jackson, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate, plans to announce his decision Sunday during the organization’s annual convention, his son told Chicago Sun-Times.
Jonathan Jackson said his father “has forever been on the scene of justice and has never stopped fighting for civil rights” and that will be “his mark upon history.”
Jesse Jackson, who will turn 82 in October, has remained active in civil rights in recent years despite health setbacks.
He announced in 2017 that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. In early 2021, he had gallbladder surgery, and later that year he 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.
A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jackson broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1971 to form Operation PUSH — originally named People United to Save Humanity — a sweeping civil rights organization based on Chicago’s South Side.
The organization was later renamed the Rainbow PUSH Coalition with a mission ranging from demanding corporations hire more minorities to engaging in voter registration drives. Its annual convention is set for this weekend in Chicago.
Join us for the Gospel Concert of the YEAR! The Rev Clay Evans concert featuring @ChrystalRucker begins at 6pm on Sunday, July 16, 2023! It’s free! Register TODAY! https://t.co/oynPByOVMZ #RPCCONV2023 pic.twitter.com/9VFrgzLo38
— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) July 10, 2023
Until Barack Obama’s election in 2008, Jackson was the most successful black candidate for the U.S. presidency, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in 1988.
He was criticized in 1984 after referring to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown.”
However, the civil rights leader worked to mend his relationship with the Jewish community in subsequent years and endorsed a Jewish candidate — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — in the 2020 presidential race.
Jackson has helped guide the modern civil rights movement on a wide variety of issues, including voting rights and education.
He stood with the family of George Floyd at a memorial for the black man who died in Minneapolis police custody in 2020, and he also urged black people to get the COVID-19 vaccines.
Al Sharpton, president and founder of the National Action Network, said in a statement that he had spoken to Jackson on Friday morning and “told him that we will continue to glean from him and learn from him and duplicate him in whatever our organizations and media platforms are. Because he has been an anchor for me and many others.”
Sharpton called Jackson his mentor, adding: “The resignation of Rev. Jesse Jackson is the pivoting of one of the most productive, prophetic, and dominant figures in the struggle for social justice in American history.”
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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