Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, 84, hospitalized

By Abby Phillip, Laura Sharman, CNN

(CNN) — Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized, according to a statement obtained by CNN.

Jackson, 84, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said Wednesday evening.

“He has been managing this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade,” the organization said in the statement.

“He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; however, last April, his PSP condition was confirmed. The family appreciates all prayers at this time.”

Further details about his condition have not been released. However, there has been “significant improvement” in the civil rights leader’s condition over the last 24 hours under medical care, his son Jesse Jackson Jr. said Thursday in a segment during his weekday radio show.

“On behalf of the Jackson family, we cannot extend enough of our gratitude for those of you who have expressed your thoughts and prayers,” he said on his KBLA show, “The Jesse Jackson Jr. Show.”

PSP is “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements,” according to the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The disease typically begins in a person’s 60s and has some symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, it adds. Most people with PSP develop severe disability within three to five years.

Jackson’s son said he started receiving text messages from his mother towards the end of his radio show on Wednesday, sharing that his father “was not having a good day.” By the time he got to him, his father was already in the ambulance, with police and the fire department at the scene, Jackson Jr. said on his show.

“I jumped out of my car and jumped into the ambulance and rode to the hospital,” Jackson Jr. said. “The doctors were able to work on him to get him the necessary fluids he needs to sustain him.”

Jackson rose to national prominence in the 1960s and has spent more than six decades advocating for racial equality, economic justice and voter rights.

In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH as a way to improve Black communities’ economic conditions across the US.

Jackson later launched the National Rainbow Coalition, in 1984, with the goal of obtaining equal rights for all Americans, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Some 12 years later, the two organizations merged to form Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

The organization’s origins stemmed from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket, founded by King, according to the website.

Jackson’s health drew public attention in 2017 when he spoke openly about his diagnosis of Parkinson’s, an incurable disease characterized by tremors, stiffness and impaired movement.

“My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago,” Jackson wrote in a statement at the time, calling the recognition of the symptoms “painful,” and noting Parkinson’s was the disease “that bested my father.”

He said he took the diagnosis as “a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease’s progression.”

In 2021, Jackson faced several health challenges, including gallbladder surgery and Covid-19 hospitalization with his wife. Later that year, he suffered a fall and hit his head while attending a meeting at Howard University in Washington, DC, and was kept in the hospital overnight for observation.

In July 2023, Jackson announced his retirement as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, succeeded by Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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