The decision will be formally announced Sunday during the organization’s annual convention, Jackson’s son, Illinois Democrat Jonathan Jackson, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jonathan Jackson further states that his father “was forever on the scene of justice and never stopped fighting for civil rights” and that will be the mark he left on history.
Jesse Jackson – who stood by the side of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. when he was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 – has been one of America’s most vocal voices for civil rights for decades. As a politician, he has stood as a presidential candidate for the Democrats in 1984 and 1988.
The pastor, who turns 82 in October, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017, but has remained active in his organization despite health problems. In early 2021, he underwent gallbladder surgery and was treated later that year for covid-19.
Jackson broke with Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1971 to form Operation PUSH – People United to Save Humanity – in Chicago.
The organization was later renamed the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the movement has, among other things, worked to encourage companies to hire more from minority groups and conduct voter registration campaigns in colored areas.