Rev. Jesse Jackson on Friday announced he is stepping down from heading the Chicago civil rights organization Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Jackson, 81, founded the organization in 1971.

Jackson selected Dallas pastor Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III to succeed him as CEO and president, CNN reported Sunday. It became official during Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s annual convention this past weekend in Chicago.

What You Need To Know

  • Dallas pastor Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III has been named the new president and CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition 

  • The organization encourages corporations to hire more minorities and holds voter registration drives in communities of color, among other activities

  • Rev. Jesse Jackson, citing health concerns, announced on Friday he is stepping down as head of the organization, which he founded in 1971

  • Haynes has been the senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas since 1983. His biography includes a long list of professional accomplishments 

Haynes, 62, has served as the senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas since 1983. According to his online biography, Haynes is a “prophetic pastor, passionate leader, social activist, eloquent orator, and educator engaged in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and fighting against racial injustice.”

Born in Dallas in 1960, Haynes moved to San Francisco for a time after his family experienced racism in the South. He later moved back to Texas and attended Bishop College in Dallas, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Religion and English.

In 1996, he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2005, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation.

“A committed activist, Dr. Haynes has formed alliances with local and national community leaders and city, county, state, and federal officials to fight social injustice, domestic violence, and poverty,” Haynes’ biography says.

He has received numerous awards, including being selected as the featured speaker at The Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Prayer Breakfast in 2011 and in 2012 being named to Ebony Magazine’s “Power 100 list of most influential African Americans.”

Jackson, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1971 to form Operation PUSH — originally named People United to Save Humanity — a sweeping civil rights organization based on Chicago’s South Side.

The organization was later renamed the Rainbow PUSH Coalition with a mission ranging from encouraging corporations to hire more minorities to voter registration drives in communities of color.