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The Rev. Jesse Jackson announced Saturday that he is stepping down from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition after 52 years at the helm.
Jackson, 81, announced his resignation as president during the Chicago-based civil rights group’s annual convention.
“I am somebody,” he said. “Green or yellow, brown, Black or white, we’re all perfect in God’s eyes. Everybody is somebody. Stop the violence. Save the children. Keep hope alive.”
The longtime leader was flanked by his daughter, Santita Jackson, and his son, US Rep. Jonathan Jackson as the group paid homage to their long-standing leader with songs, tribute speeches and a video montage of Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.
Jackson worked closely with and was considered a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but broke from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1971 to form People United to Save Humanity, which would be later rebranded as the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
The organization, which ran out of Chicago’s South Side, initially worked to promote minority hiring in the corporate world and to increase voter registration in communities of color.
Jackson was one of the first major leaders to suggest giving reparations to descendants of black slaves — an action that is being seriously considered in multiple states.
In recent years, the PUSH founder stood alongside George Floyd’s family during calls for a crackdown on police violence and participated in COVID-19 vaccination drives to counter Black hesitancy about the drugs.
Jackson did not reveal why he was retiring from the presidential spot, but has been suffering from a horde of health problems in recent years.
The Rev. was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago and suffered a host of health setbacks in 2021, beginning with gallbladder surgery and a COVID-19 infection that landed him in a physical therapy-focused facility.
In November 2021, Jackson fell and hit his head during a visit to Howard University to advocate on behalf of students protesting campus living conditions.
Jackson announced that he is passing the reigns to the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes, “a long-time student of Rev. Jackson and supporter” of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and pastor at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas.
Though he will no longer head the iconic organization, Jackson has no plans to slow down his fight for equality, including advocating for three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who this week saw a judge dismiss their lawsuit seeking reparations.
“We’re resigning, we’re not retiring,” Jackson said.
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