Veteran U.S. civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized and is currently under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition announced on Wednesday.
In a statement, the organization said Jackson, 84, has been managing the neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade. “He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; however, last April, his PSP condition was confirmed,” the group said, adding that his family “appreciates all prayers at this time.”
Jackson, one of the most prominent figures of the U.S. civil rights movement, worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s to advance racial equality and social justice.
He was present in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was assassinated in 1968, an event that profoundly shaped his lifelong activism.
Jesse Jackson Jr., left, and Martin Luther King Jr. return to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., to strategize for the second Sanitation Workers march led by King in this April 3, 1968 file photo. King was shot dead on the balcony the next day. (Associated Press)
The reverend revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which affects movement and worsens over time.
In recent years, he has faced several health challenges, including hospitalizations in 2021 after contracting COVID-19 and later suffering a fall that resulted in a head injury.
Jackson founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which emerged from a merger between “People United to Save Humanity,” established in 1971 to continue King’s legacy, and a later organization he created following his 1984 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Over decades, Jackson’s leadership and advocacy have made him a central figure in the fight for civil rights, voting access, and economic empowerment for marginalized communities across the United States.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
