Rainbow PUSH Coalition is Rev. Jesse Jackson's legacy in lifelong fight for civil rights and equality

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. In:

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.