Rev. Jesse Jackson remains hospitalized after receiving care to stabilize his blood pressure, sources say
Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson is still hospitalized and receiving care to control his blood pressure, sources close to Jackson’s family told CNN on Sunday.
In a statement released late Sunday afternoon, the family said he was breathing on his own, without the aid of machines and without life support. A separate source added that he had previously taken medication to raise his blood pressure, a form of life support.
Over the last 24 hours, Jackson’s condition improved and he was able to keep his blood pressure stable without the aid of medication.
Jackson, 84, a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said in a statement Wednesday evening.
No further details about his condition were released.
The family source said Jackson had been experiencing short-term energy due to the medication he had been taking for two days. The source added that Jackson experienced a significant drop in blood pressure on Saturday night, but his medical team treated him immediately.
Even while under treatment, he showed brief but significant signs of reaction, the source said.
“In fact, today he called for 2,000 churches to prepare 2,000 baskets of food to prevent malnutrition during the holiday season,” his son Yusef said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
His son Jesse Jackson Jr. During an episode of his weekday radio show Thursday, he said there had been a “significant improvement” in the civil rights leader’s condition under medical care last week.
PSP is a “rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking, balance, and eye movements.” US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
He adds that 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.
The organization previously said in a statement that Jackson “managed this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade.” “He was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; however, PSP status was confirmed last April.”
Jackson rose to national prominence as a close aide to King in the 1960s. After King’s assassination in 1968, Jackson became one of the most transformative civil rights leaders in America.
He founded Operation PUSH in 1971 as a way to improve the economic conditions of Black communities in the United States. According to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson later founded the National Rainbow Coalition in 1984 to achieve equal rights for all Americans.
Twelve years later, the two organizations merged to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
One of Jackson’s signature quotes was “Keep hope alive,” and he became a force for social justice in three eras: the Jim Crow era, the civil rights era, and the post-civil rights era, culminating in the election of Barack Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Amanda Musa contributed to this report.
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