With a quiet voice, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced on July 14, 2023, that he is retiring as president and CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
“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.”
On August 20, 1972, during the Wattstax Festival in Los Angeles, Jackson delivered his powerful “I Am Somebody,” speech which helped launch his national reputation as a political and social justice force.
“Keep Hope Alive” was a campaign slogan during his 1988 run for president.
Before Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Jackson was the most successful Black presidential candidate. He won 13 primaries and caucuses and addressed the Democratic National Convention before Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis was nominated.
Jackson said in his remarks that he plans to continue working on social justice issues, including advocating for three survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre who recently saw a judge dismiss their lawsuit seeking reparations.
“We’re resigning, we’re not retiring,” Jackson said.
The organization said in a release that Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III succeed Jackson as president.
Haynes, 62, has served as the senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas since 1983, according to the church’s website. Under his leadership, the church founded the THR!VE Intern and Leadership Program, which employs young Black people with local businesses and the church – an effort that earned praise from then-President Barack Obama in a 2014 speech.
“As a student of Rev. Jackson’s, I am honored to be selected for this prestigious and important position,” Haynes said in a release.
“The role Rainbow PUSH Coalition plays today is just as critical as it was in 1963, when the organization was founded. Our communities need organizations like Rainbow PUSH to not only continue the fight for justice and equality, but to shepherd the next generation of advocates into the movement.”
President Joe Biden said Jackson “helped lead our nation forward through tumult and triumph.”
“Whether on the campaign trail, on the march for equality, or in the room advocating for what is right and just, I’ve seen him as history will remember him: a man of God and of the people; determined, strategic, and unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our nation.”
Jackson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago. He suffered a host of health setbacks in 2021, beginning with gallbladder surgery, a COVID-19 infection that landed him in a physical therapy-focused facility and a fall at Howard University that caused a head injury.
According to his official biography, Jackson was born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina.
He graduated from the public schools in Greenville and then enrolled in the University of Illinois on a football scholarship.
Jackson later transferred to North Carolina A&T State University and graduated in 1964.
He began his theological studies at Chicago Theological Seminary but, according to his bio, deferred his studies when he started working full-time in the Civil Rights Movement with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Ordained by Rev. Clay Evans on June 30, 1968, Jackson received his Master of Divinity degree from Chicago Theological Seminary in 2000.
Jackson has received over 40 honorary doctorate degrees and frequently lectures at major colleges and universities, including Howard, Yale, Princeton, Morehouse, Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Hampton.
In October 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Jackson as Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa.
The NNPA Newswire contributed to this report.
