The death of the Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. leaves a huge leadership gap at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and in the modern civil rights movement. Jackson endured as the most influential Black figure in the nation since the 1968 death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. until the 2008 election of Barack Obama.
Even Obama acknowledged that it was Jackson who laid the foundation for his own improbable journey to the White House with his consequential 1984 and 1988 runs for president.
Jackson was a force to be reckoned with because of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. He established the organization early in the 1970s, it became the vehicle through which he championed issues of economic justice from Main Street to Wall Street, while advocating for the nation’s most vulnerable communities and playing a diplomatic role on the global stage. The organization and its logo became an imprint on the minds of many leaders across business and politics, and Jackson wielded that influence with shrewdness and a profound commitment to inclusion and equity.
With Jackson’s death, it remains an open question about who will succeed him at the Chicago headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. It is all the more important given the state of Black America with the crucial midterm in November. One of Jackson’s sons, Yusef Jackson, has been running the organization as chief operating officer since his father’s health started declining, and is expected to become its CEO for the time being.
But Yusef doesn’t possess the charisma, faith-based leadership nor the long-standing political and economic ties that his father had developed over decades. Many were drawn to the organization not only because of its impact but because of their deep admiration for the Rev. Jackson.
Yusef, who is not a known entity in the circles of influence where Rev. Jackson traveled will have to introduce himself and assure supporters of the organization, as well as political and business powerbrokers that his father’s transition won’t disrupt the vision and mission of “keeping hope alive.”
While Yusef is known to be a savvy businessman and has been an entrepreneur most of his life, he is not a civil rights activist or an ordained minister, as the organization would traditionally want in a successor. At its core, Rainbow PUSH is a moral bully pulpit, and Jackson was its trumpeter.
There is no suggestion of an urgency to find a permanent replacement for the Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, a powerful minister, who won the primary last Tuesday in Texas’s 30th Congressional District. Haynes was considered a favorite. But he’s obviously now taking a different route.
“I felt it necessary, in light of the huge challenges faced by our community … this nation and world during this consequential year to move in a different direction,” Haynes said. “I will continue the fight for justice. I will continue to be a prophetic witness. I will just do it in another lane while continuing to honor the work of Rainbow PUSH and Rev. Jackson.”
Detroit automotive and energy executive Louis James has known Jackson for years. The two worked together, and Jackson would sometimes meet with him when he was in the city.
“Rev. Jackson laid a tremendous foundation for Rainbow PUSH. Nothing should stay the same. That foundation has to go to another level now in terms of the next generation,” James told me. “It is important especially in this technological space we are in.. The organization should add its voice to those issues where equity is needed because they impact not only the Black community but all communities.”
The interim leadership and the board of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition must decide who will take on the mantle of leadership. Captains of industry and government officials are waiting to see what is next.
X (formerly Twitter): @BankoleDetNews
bankole@bankolethompson.com
Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Thompson: Who will lead Rainbow PUSH Coalition after Jesse Jackson’s death?
Reporting by Bankole Thompson / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
