Rev. Jesse Jackson hospitalized in Chicago, Rainbow/PUSH confirms

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., the civil rights leader and founder of the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has been hospitalized.

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in a statement said that Jackson had been admitted to the hospital Wednesday and was under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

“The family appreciates all prayers at this time,” the organization stated.

Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson Jr., confirmed his father had been hospitalized in an email to the Tribune Wednesday night but provided no further comment.

PSP is a rare neurological disorder caused by damage to nerve cells in the brain that affects body movements, walking and balance and eye movements, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

This is the latest in a series of health setbacks in recent years. Jackson announced in 2017 that he had begun outpatient care for Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. In early 2021, he had gallbladder surgery and later that year was treated for COVID-19, including a stint at a physical therapy-focused facility. He was hospitalized again in November 2021 for a fall that caused a head injury.

The two-time presidential candidate has been a central figure in the civil rights movement and national politics for more than six decades.

A protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1971 to form Operation PUSH — originally named People United to Save Humanity — a sweeping civil rights organization based on Chicago’s South Side.

Thirteen years later, Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition. By 1996, Operation PUSH and the Rainbow Coalition merged to form the joint Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Jackson stepped down from heading the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in 2023.