Updated Nov 13, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson hospitalized

Rebecca Falconer

A sitting civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, wearing a navy pinstriped suit, lilac shirt and brown-purple tie with blue dots on it looks to his right across a crowded room. — Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago, Illinois, in July. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Rev. Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized in Chicago, said the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the nonprofit the civil rights leader founded, Wednesday evening.

The big picture: The 84-year-old is "under observation for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP)," per the coalition's statement. "He has been managing this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade."

Zoom in: Jackson was originally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but his PSP condition was confirmed last April, the statement notes.

"The family appreciates all prayers at this time."

Of note: Jackson has played a leading role in the U.S. civil rights movement since the 1960s.

He joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the Freedom Movement, a summer-long protest of housing inequality on the South and West sides of Chicago.
The Democrat twice ran for president and retired from leading Rainbow PUSH in 2023 after more than a half century of activism.
Jackson was among the civil rights leaders who rallied at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in March to mark 60 years since "Bloody Sunday," when authorities beat peaceful protesters who were marching against race discrimination in voting.

Go deeper: The legacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more context.

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Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson hospitalized

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