Civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized amid his ongoing struggle with a serious neurodegenerative condition, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition announced Wednesday, November 12. The organization said Jackson, who has been living with palsy (PSP) for almost a decade, is now under medical care and being closely monitored.
He was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease years ago. Earlier this year doctors re‑identified his condition as PSP, a disorder that impairs movement, balance and speech. The coalition’s statement thanked everyone for their prayers and support while Jackson continues his treatment. It offered no details, about his present condition or what his recovery might look like.
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. has emerged as a civil‑rights figure, a Baptist minister and a relentless political activist with an estimated worth of roughly $4 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Being raised in the South, the early sting of racial injustice set Jesse Jackson on a lifelong quest, for equality. He was a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. first stepping onto the stage in the 1960s through his work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH. By 1984, he had launched the National Rainbow Coalition, both ventures designed to broaden opportunity and widen political inclusion for marginalized communities. His leadership in those movements, coupled with his oratory and an unflagging push for education, jobs and voting rights secured his place as a figure of the civil‑rights era and its enduring legacy.
Jackson etched his name into history with bids in 1984 and again in 1988, the latter campaign dramatically broadened the party’s base, drawing together a mosaic of Black, Latino and working‑class voters. Over the course of his career, he has stepped into the role of a back‑channel envoy, engineering the release of hostages from Syria, Cuba and Iraq.
In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Financial disclosures across the years have shown that his activism also brought in a paycheck - salaries from the organizations he headed and a stint on CNN's 'Both Sides with Jesse Jackson'. He married Jacqueline Jackson, who handled most of the family's assets and early records point to holdings that would translate to than a million dollars in today’s terms.
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TOPICS: Jesse Jackson