Today in our History – December 25, 1971 – Jesse Jackson organizes operation PUSH.

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion Organization is a nonprofit organization formed as a merger of two nonprofit organizations founded by Jesse Jackson. The organization pursues social justice, civil rights, and political activism.

On December 25, 1971, Jesse Jackson resigned from Operation Breadbasket after clashing with Ralph Abernathy and founded Operation PUSH. In 1984 Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition; it merged with PUSH in 1996. The combined organization's national headquarters is on the South Side of Chicago and it has branches in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, Silicon Valley, New Orleans and Boston.

Operation PUSH raised public awareness to initiate corporate action and government sponsorship. The National Rainbow Coalition became a prominent political organization that raised public awareness of numerous political issues and consolidated a large voting bloc. The merged entity has undertaken numerous social initiatives.

Remember – "My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago, After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson's disease, a disease that bested my father." He added that he viewed his diagnosis as "a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease's progression." – Jesse Jackson

Today in our History – December 25, 1971 – Jesse Jackson organizes operation PUSH.

Operation PUSH, an acronym for People United to Save (later Serve) Humanity, was an organization that advocated black self-help and achieved a broad audience for its liberal stances on social justice and civil rights.

Operation PUSH's origins 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, which became a coalition of black ministers and entrepreneurs.

After 1968, Jackson increasingly clashed with King's successor at SCLC, 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 formed Operation PUSH.

From its inception, Jackson referred to its membership as a "Rainbow Coalition." The phrase originated in 1968 when Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton used it to describe the multi-ethnic revolutionary federation he founded. Jackson was not part of Hampton's Rainbow Coalition, and had a difficult relationship with the Panthers. Some former members of Hampton's coalition resent Jackson for using the name, partly because Jackson's politics are reformist, and partly because Jackson copyrighted the name, preventing others from using it.

Although money was a problem at first, initial backing came from Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, Gary, Indiana Mayor Richard Hatcher, Aretha Franklin, Jim Brown, and Ossie Davis.

Jesse Jackson speaks at 1973 PUSH National Convention

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

Through PUSH Jackson was able to continue pursuing the same economic objectives that Operation Breadbasket had. In addition, his organization expanded into social and political development for blacks in Chicago and nationwide. The 1970s saw various tactics to pursue the organization's objectives including direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts, and awards, through which Jackson protected black homeowners, workers, and businesses, and honored prominent blacks in the US and abroad.

Jackson also started a campaign against legalizing abortion after Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. PUSH was concerned with minority youth reading, and championed education through PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program that emphasized keeping inner-city youths in school while assisting them with job placement.[8] The program, which persuaded inner-city youth to pledge in writing to study two hours per night and involved parental monitoring, impressed Jimmy Carter, whose administration became a large sponsor after Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano and Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall courted Jackson.

Lake Shore Drive Senior Citizens March (July 1973).

The organization was very successful at committing major corporations with large presences in the black community to adopt affirmative action programs in which they hired more black executives and supervisors and to buy from black suppliers, wholesalers, and distributors. The organization employed prayer vigils to call attention to issues. It opposed Ronald Reagan's workfare initiative requiring that welfare recipients work for part of their benefits.

The organization staged several boycotts, including early 1980s boycotts of Anheuser Busch and Coca-Cola as well as a 1986 boycott of CBS television affiliates. The boycotts became so well known that at one point David Duke supporters referred to a boycott of Nike, Inc. as oppression of whites by blacks. Nike spokesperson Michael Jordan disavowed the boycott. The boycotts of Budweiser and Coke as well as one against Kentucky Fried Chicken were touted for having won minority job concessions from white businesses.

Jesse Jackson was a Presidential candidate in both 1984 and 1988.

The National Rainbow Coalition (Rainbow Coalition for short) was a political organization that grew out of Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign. During the campaign, Jackson began speaking about a "Rainbow Coalition", an idea created by Fred Hampton, regarding the disadvantaged and welcomed voters from a broad spectrum of races and creeds. The goals of the campaign were to demand social programs, voting rights, and affirmative action for all groups that had been neglected by Reaganomics.

Jackson's campaign blamed President Ronald Reagan's policies for reduction of government domestic spending, causing new unemployment and encouraging economic investment outside of the inner cities, while they discouraged the rebuilding of urban industry. The industrial layoffs caused by these policies hit the Black and other minority populations particularly hard.

At the 1984 Democratic National Convention on July 18, 1984, in San Francisco, California, Jackson delivered an address entitled "The Rainbow Coalition". The speech called for Arab Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, youth, disabled veterans, small farmers, lesbians and gays to join with African Americans and Jewish Americans for political purpose. Whereas the purpose of PUSH had been to fight for economic and educational opportunities, the Rainbow Coalition was created to address political empowerment and public policy issues.

After his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 1984, Jackson attempted to build a broad base of support among groups that "were hurt by Reagan administration policies" - racial minorities, the poor, small farmers, working mothers, the unemployed, some labor union members, gays, and lesbians. Research more about this American Champion organization and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!