Civil Rights Activist Rev. Willie T. Barrow in Hospital

Rev. Willie T. Barrow
Rev. Willie T. Barrow

Rev. Willie T. Barrow is reportedly in Jackson Park Hospital with a blood clot in her lung.

“She’s fighting tremendous odds...She needs and deserves our prayers,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. was quoted as saying in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

In 1962, she worked with the Rev. Jesse Jackson to create Operation Breadbasket, an organization focused on meeting the needs of underserved black communities.

Jackson would later found Operation P.U.S.H (People United to Serve Humanity) based on Operation Breadbasket. Barrow replaced Jackson as executive director of Operation PUSH in 1984, and over the last 20 years has served the organization in various capacities, including chief operating officer, vice chairwoman of the board, and consultant. (In 1985, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition and in 1997, he merged the two organizations together into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.)

One of seven children, Barrow was born on December 17, 1924 in Burton, Texas. Her mother and father, who was a minister, had a profound influence on her life's work and taught her to "take on the burden of her fellow man." As a student in the 1940's, Barrow challenged the local school system's policy not to provide bus service to African American students.

Barrow, who grew up in Texas, settled in 1945 in Chicago, where she pushed for the election of the city’s first African-American mayor, Harold Washington, and the nation’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. She has advocated for the rights of minorities, gays, women and union members.

An associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she worked on the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 March on Selma.

Barrows recently celebrated her 90th birthday in December.

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