US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is hospitalised and currently under observation for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which he founded, said.
"He has been managing this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade," the organisation said in a statement. "He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease; however, last April, his PSP condition was confirmed. The family appreciates all prayers at this time."
The 84-year-old reverend has been a leader of the US civil rights movement since the 1960s. He fought for the rights of Black Americans and other minorities alongside his mentor, Martin Luther King Jr., and was present when King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.
Jackson announced in 2017 that he had Parkinson's disease, an ailment that constrains movement and gets progressively worse with time.
In 2021, he was hospitalised after testing positive for COVID-19, and again after falling and hitting his head.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a merger between "People United to Save Humanity," a group Jackson founded in 1971 to continue King's work, and a coalition he formed after his first unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.
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