Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson released from the hospital after treatment in the ICU
By Taylor Romine, Abby Phillip, CNN
(CNN) — Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson was released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital Monday, the Rainbow PUSH Organization said, after sources said he was receiving care to manage his blood pressure.
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 in a previous statement. He is currently in stable condition, the organization that Jackson founded said Monday.
Jackson is returning to a residence, a source said.
“Our family would like to thank the countless friends and supporters who have reached out, visited, and prayed for our father,” said Yusef Jackson, son and family spokesperson.
“We bear witness to the fact that prayer works and would also like to thank the professional, caring, and amazing medical and security staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. We humbly ask for your continued prayers throughout this precious time.”
A November 16 statement from Jackson’s organization said he was breathing on his own without the assistance of machines and not on life support. A separate source added earlier he had been receiving medication to raise his blood pressure, which is a form of life support.
Further details about his condition have not been released.
PSP is “a rare neurological disorder that affects body movements, walking and balance, and eye movements,” according to the US 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, it adds. 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 organization previously said in a statement. “He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease; however, last April his PSP condition was confirmed.”
During his time in the hospital, Jackson was eager to get back to work, according to a previous family statement that said he had “called for 2,000 churches to prepare 2,000 baskets of food to prevent malnutrition during the holiday season.”
Jackson rose to national prominence in the 1960s as a close aide to King. 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 US. 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.
Twelve years later, the two organizations merged to form Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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