DALLAS - The Rainbow PUSH Coalition started by Reverend Jesse Jackson to address political empowerment and public policy now has a new leader: Dallas pastor Frederick Haynes.
For his first official event, the new leader is hosting a social justice conference after his inauguration Thursday night.
The social justice conference held at Paul Quinn College brought leaders locally and nationally to Dallas to address issues like gun violence, poverty, homelessness and inadequate representation.
It brought leaders like civil rights activist Tamika Mallory, community organizer and executive director of the non-profit "Until Freedom."
"This is a movement that we help to transform the people to get them out to get them in the streets to go from protests, which is important to the politics of their community," she said.
Dallas pastor to succeed Rev. Jesse Jackson as leader of Rainbow PUSH Coalition
A Dallas pastor, Reverend Frederick Douglass Haynes III, will succeed the Reverend Jesse Jackson as leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
The social justice conference is the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition under the leadership of Friendship-West Baptist Church Pastor Frederick Haynes.
The Dallas pastor took the office of president and CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Thursday night. He was selected by Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was in attendance, to succeed as the leader of the organization Jackson founded in 1971.
Haynes’ first conference was called to write his vision for the future work of the coalition.
"There is a general principle around economic justice around voter engagement around justice for the environment around justice for those who have no voice," he said. "And so all of that will be discussed, but it’s also a reflection of the agenda going forward of Rainbow PUSH."
A push for every person to be treated the same and that people not be categorized but prioritized.