The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., the longtime civil rights chief and former Democratic presidential candidate, plans to step down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the group he based, the group mentioned in an announcement on Friday.

Mr. Jackson, 81, who has had a number of well being points lately and introduced in 2017 that he had Parkinson’s illness, spoke concerning the determination on the group’s weekly radio broadcast on Saturday, Fox 32 Chicago reported.

“I’m going to make a transition pretty soon,” Mr. Jackson mentioned, in keeping with the news station. “I’ve been doing this stuff for 64 years. I was 18 years old. I’m going to get a new president for Rainbow PUSH Coalition.”

He mentioned he would work with the brand new president and the board by the change. “I want to see us grow and prosper,” he mentioned, including: “We have the ability to build on what we’ve established over the years.”

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition mentioned in an announcement {that a} successor to Mr. Jackson can be launched at its annual convention, which is being held this weekend in Chicago and features a celebration of the thirty fifth anniversary of his 1988 presidential marketing campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to deal with the conference on Sunday.

In the assertion saying Mr. Jackson’s determination to step down, the group mentioned: “His commitment is unwavering, and he will elevate his life’s work by teaching ministers how to fight for social justice and continue the freedom movement.”

Mr. Jackson has been a stalwart determine within the civil rights motion since he was a youngster within the Nineteen Sixties. He labored with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

He based the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 1996 on account of a merger between two groups he had beforehand began.

He started Operation PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity, in 1971, with the aim of bettering the financial situations of Black communities throughout the United States. The group later modified the phrase “Save” to “Serve.”

The different group was the Rainbow Coalition, which Mr. Jackson began in 1984 after his first presidential marketing campaign. That group opposed President Reagan’s home spending cuts and sought higher investments in American cities, significantly in minority communities.

In 2017, Mr. Jackson announced that he had Parkinson’s disease. He mentioned that he and his household had seen three years earlier that he was having rising issue performing routine duties.

In early 2021, he underwent gallbladder surgical procedure after experiencing “abdominal discomfort,” a spokesman told The Associated Press. Later that 12 months, Mr. Jackson and his spouse, Jacqueline, have been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus.

One of his sons, Representative Jonathan L. Jackson, Democrat of Illinois, informed The Chicago Sun-Times that there was “a determination made that in his current health and condition that he has appointed a successor and will formally announce it Sunday.”

He mentioned that his father’s Parkinson’s was “progressive” and that he had been utilizing a wheelchair.

Mr. Jackson, his son mentioned, “has forever been on the scene of justice and has never stopped fighting for civil rights,” and that may be “his mark upon history.”