Rainbow/PUSH

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"The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks on a radio broadcast from the headquarters of Operation PUSH, [People United to Save Humanity] at its annual convention." July 1973. Photograph by John H. White.

Jesse Jackson formed two non-profit organizations, Operation PUSH (People United To Serve Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition.

The origins of Operation PUSH can be traced to a factional split in Operation Breadbasket, an affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr., the head of the SCLC, appointed Jackson to head the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket.

After 1968, however, Jackson increasingly clashed with King's successor at SCLC, Rev. Ralph Abernathy. The break became complete in December 1971 when Abernathy suspended Jackson for “administrative improprieties and repeated acts of violation of organizational policy.” Jackson resigned from Operation Breadbasket, called together his allies, and Operation PUSH was born.

The organizational meeting of PUSH was in the Chicago home of Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a prominent black doctor and community leader on the South Side. Before he moved to Chicago in 1956, Howard had developed a national reputation as a Mississippi civil rights leader, surgeon, and entrepreneur. Howard served on PUSH’s board of directors and chaired the finance committee.

Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984 which merged with PUSH in 1996. The combined organization keeps its national headquarters in Chicago and has branches in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, Silicon Valley, and New Orleans.

[edit] References

David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito. T.R.M. Howard M.D.: A Mississippi Doctor in Chicago Civil Rights, A.M.E. Church Review (July-September 2001), 50-59.