Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson “responds positively” to COVID treatment

Reverend Jesse Jackson stops at a demonstration outside the United States Capitol to protest the expiration of the federal moratorium on residential evictions in Washington, United States on August 2, 2021. REUTERS / Evelyn Hockstein

Aug 23 (Reuters) – Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his wife “are responding positively” to treatment after catching COVID-19, their son said in a statement on Sunday.

Doctors at Northwestern University Memorial Hospital in Chicago are closely monitoring Jackson, 79, and his wife, Jacqueline, 77, due to their age, one day after their hospitalization, their son Jonathan noted in a statement released by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a group founded by his father.[Readmore[Ensavoirplus[readmore

â€œBoth are resting comfortably and responding positively to their treatments,â€ he said.

Jackson, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017, has been a leader of the American civil rights movement since the mid-1960s and was with Martin Luther King when he was assassinated in 1968.

Jackson twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s, but failed to become the first black candidate for the White House.

He received the Legion of Honor from French President Emmanuel Macron in July, one of France’s highest honors, in recognition of what he called “a long march towards emancipation and justice”. Read more

Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Jahnavi Nidumulu in Bengaluru; Editing by Gerry Doyle

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