Perhaps the greatest legacy Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. leaves behind is the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, his landmark national service organization focused on social justice and fighting for social change.
Rainbow PUSH was formed in 1996 by Rev. Jackson when he merged two earlier organizations: People United to Serve Humanity, or PUSH, which was founded in 1971 and the Rainbow Coalition, founded in 1984.
But the organization’s roots begin in Jackson’s work in the Civil Rights Movement, the product of a movement that grew out of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s economic program Operation Breadbasket.
Operation Breadbasket — with its slogan “Keep a slice of the ‘bread’ in your community” — was founded by King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in which Jackson became a prominent leader. On Feb. 11, 1966, hundreds of local pastors representing different denominations gathered at the Jubilee CME Church in Chicago to heard King unveil a plan to address high unemployment numbers in Chicago’s African American community.
Then a young theological student, Jackson was named its coordinator. Under his guidance, teams of ministers kept an eye on local businesses to see who was and was not hiring Black workers. Companies that hired few or no African Americans were asked to hire a percentage of qualified candidates in the near future. If negotiations didn’t work, the ministers would then call on their congregations to consider boycotting businesses who profited from the Black community but did not employ them. Several successful picketing campaigns were held outside supermarkets.Â
As documented in a retrospective by the Chicago Public Library, it’s estimated Operation Breadbasket helped bring 4,500 jobs into the Black community over its six years, and greatly increased business at Black-owned companies and stores. It’s been touted as the most successful operation of King’s “Northern Campaign.”
Following that success, Jackson established PUSH in 1971 to improve the economic conditions in Black communities. The organization used direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts and other methods to help protect Black homeowners, workers and businesses.
PUSH also funded and organized youth reading programs and inner-city youth education and job placement programs. It pushed major corporations to adopt affirmative action policies to hire more Black and minority executives and supervisors, and work with Black suppliers, wholesalers and distributors.
When business owners were reluctant, PUSH used boycotts and prayer vigils to achieve hiring concessions.
After his first presidential campaign in 1984, Jackson launched the National Rainbow Coalition to fight for equal rights for all Americans. The organization demanded social programs, affirmative action hiring practices and voting rights protections for groups that Jackson saw being left out of President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. The National Rainbow Coalition opposed Reagan’s policies to reduce domestic government spending, and fought for economic investment outside inner cities to better conditions for minority communities in suburban, ex-urban and rural areas.
The two organizations merged into Rainbow PUSH in 1996 when Jackson moved back to Chicago from Washington, D.C. following a time as a shadow senator on Capitol Hill.Â
Rainbow PUSH is headquartered in Chicago and has offices around the country in Washington. D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and Oakland, California.
Jackson stepped down as president of Rainbow PUSH in 2023, and served as president emeritus until his death. The organization still holds their annual People’s Conference, and continues to provide scholarships, housing assistance, job assistance, youth services and education programs, all part of their mission to “protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.”
