Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, 84, has been hospitalized for observation of a neurodegenerative condition, his family and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said.
Jackson, a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time 1980s presidential candidate, has been managing a progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) diagnosis, confirmed last April. He was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease more than a decade ago.
Rainbow PUSH said, “He has been managing this condition for more than a decade… The family appreciates all prayers at this time.”
PSP, often mistaken for Parkinson’s, causes slowed movements, tremors, stiffness, falls, shuffling, and memory changes. Jackson first revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2017, noting symptoms began years earlier. “For me, a Parkinson’s diagnosis is not a stop sign,” he said then.