The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to attendees at the inaugural Sunday Dinner event, hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Black Caucus, Sunday, March 27, 2022, in Columbia, S.C. — Meg Kinnard/AP/File via CNN Newsource
Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson remains hospitalized and is now receiving a form of life support to stabilize his blood pressure, a source close to Jackson’s family told CNN on Sunday. Jackson, 84, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has been under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said Wednesday evening. Further details about his condition have not been released.
The family source says Jackson has had moments of brief energy due to a medication he has been on for two days. Jackson experienced a significant drop in blood pressure Saturday night, but a medical team responded immediately, the source added. Even while under treatment, he has shown brief but meaningful signs of responsiveness.
Last week, there had been “significant improvement” in the civil rights leader’s condition under medical care, his son Jesse Jackson Jr. said Thursday during a segment on his weekday radio show.
PSP is “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements,” according to the U.S. 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. Most people with PSP develop severe disability within three to five years.
Jackson “has been managing this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade,” the Rainbow PUSH Coalition previously stated. “He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; however, last April, his PSP condition was confirmed.”
Jackson first rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the most transformative civil rights leaders in America.
In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH as a way to improve Black communities’ economic conditions across the United States. 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. Approximately 12 years later, the two organizations merged to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
One of Jackson’s signature phrases was “Keep hope alive,” and he was a force for social justice over three eras: the Jim Crow period, the civil rights era, and the post-civil rights era, culminating with the election of Barack Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement.
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In related news, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that TSA employees who “stepped up every single day” and “served with exemplary service” will be receiving bonus checks.
https://www.phillytrib.com/news/rev-jesse-jackson-receiving-a-form-of-life-support-after-being-hospitalized-last-week-family/article_11d3293b-71bf-4f9d-8d43-5efe469e877e.html