The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has been hospitalized for a long-term neurodegenerative condition, according to the organization he founded.
Jackson, 84, “was admitted to the hospital today and is currently under observation for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP),” the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said in a statement late Wednesday, adding that he had been managing the condition for more than a decade.
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate, has been hospitalized for a long-term neurodegenerative condition, according to the organization he founded.
Jackson, 84, “was admitted to the hospital today and is currently under observation for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP),” the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said in a statement late Wednesday, adding that he had been managing the condition for more than a decade.
He was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015 but received a diagnosis of PSP “last April,” said Rainbow PUSH, which advocates for social change and protection of civil rights. “The family appreciates all prayers at this time,” it added.
“Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful, and I have been slow to grasp the gravity of it,” Jackson said in 2017 of his Parkinson’s diagnosis, a disease that, he said, “bested my father.”
He explained he had found it “increasingly difficult to perform routine tasks” and get around in the years before the disease was confirmed. “For me, a Parkinson’s diagnosis is not a stop sign but rather a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease’s progression,” he added.
PSP is a rare neurological disorder affecting body movements, walking and balance, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Patients are often misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, with which PSP shares many symptoms — although PSP usually progresses more rapidly, the NINDS says.
The condition’s symptoms typically begin when patients are in their mid- to late-60s, with most people developing severe disability within three to five years, NINDS says, adding that patients can experience serious complications including “pneumonia, choking, or head injuries from falls.”
Jackson is one of the nation’s best-known civil rights leaders. He was among the marchers in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 during a brutal police assault on civil rights demonstrators that became known as Bloody Sunday. Three years later, he was at the Lorraine Motel when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Jackson ran for president twice during the 1980s, and in 2000 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
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