A local pastor and activist has assumed Jesse Jackson’s place as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a left-wing civil rights group founded by Jackson.
Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III officially assumed leadership of the coalition during its 57th annual conference on Sunday. Vice President Kamala Harris was present at the event, which took place at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.
“As a student of Rev. Jackson’s, I am honored to be selected for this prestigious and important position,” Haynes said, per NBC 5 DFW. “The role Rainbow PUSH Coalition plays today is just as critical as it was in 1963 when the organization was founded.”
“Our communities need organizations like Rainbow PUSH to not only continue the fight for justice and equality but to shepherd the next generation of advocates into the movement,” he continued.
“I stand here on his shoulders because no one with sense would try to stand in his shoes,” Haynes added.
For his part, Jackson said he would continue to be “very involved in the organization.”
According to the coalition, “Haynes has devoted his life to economic justice and empowerment in underserved communities and transforming the lives of the disenfranchised,” according to NBC 5.
Haynes served as senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas for 40 years.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Haynes spoke before the Dallas City Council in June to protest the construction of a warehouse in the Oak Cliff neighborhood where his church is situated.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition claims its mission is to “protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.”
The coalition “push[es] the values of democracy and liberty and equality and justice not from the top down, but from the bottom up and the outside in,” said Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the late 1990s, Donald Trump worked with the coalition to help African Americans obtain employment in the corporate world and launch building projects in communities of color.
“There are no better builders than we have in New York and a big percentage of that is black and minority folks,” Trump said at the coalition’s Wall Street Project event in 1999.
Jackson thanked Trump at the time for giving African Americans a “face” on Wall Street and praised his “will to make things better” for “underserved communities.”
