Civil rights icon Jesse Jackson was hospitalized in Chicago on Wednesday with complications from a neurodegenerative disease, according to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the social justice group he founded. Jackson, 84, has been living with progressive supranuclear palsy, an illness often mistaken for Parkinson's disease, for more than 10 years, though his definitive diagnosis came only in April, per the Los Angeles Times. The disorder, which causes issues with balance, vision, and speech, is marked by a rapid decline and has a grimmer outlook than typical Parkinson's cases.
"The family appreciates all prayers at this time," notes a release from the coalition, per USA Today. In recent years, Jackson was hospitalized in August 2021 after he and his wife came down with COVID, as well as later that year after taking a tumble and hitting his head. Despite his medical setbacks, Jackson remains a towering figure in American activism. Born in segregated South Carolina in 1941, he rose to national prominence as an ally of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
He later pushed for greater Black employment opportunities and in the 1980s founded the National Rainbow Coalition (which later merged with PUSH), aiming to bring together marginalized communities and working-class Americans for social justice. Jackson also broke political barriers as the first Black presidential candidate to gain substantial national traction, securing millions of votes in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic primaries.
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