July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is stepping down as head of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded, according to remarks he made during a recent broadcast.
Jackson, 81, has been a leader of the U.S. civil rights movement since the 1960s.
Jackson announced in 2017 that he had Parkinson's disease, an ailment that constrains movement and gets progressively worse with time.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a merger between "People United to Save Humanity," a group Jackson founded in 1971 to continue King's work, and a coalition he formed after his first unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.
Jackson ran again in 1988, winning several primaries and garnering momentum from Black voters and white liberals, but ultimately failed to become the first Black presidential nominee from a major party.
Persons:
Jesse Jackson, Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr, King, Julia Harte, Edmund Klamann
Organizations:
Civil, Coalition, Democratic, Thomson
Locations:
Chicago, Memphis , Tennessee