At the Rainbow PUSH Coalition‘s Creating Opportunity Conference closing ceremony in Atlanta on Oct. 20, representatives of the organization announced that Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. has been hospitalized.
In recent years, Jackson’s speech has been impacted by Parkinson’s disease. The formerly masterful and elegant orator often begins his speeches by apologizing to the audience for faltering in his delivery which was also effected by a serious bout with COVID-19.
Rolling out had the opportunity to speak to Attorney CK Hoffler at the event to provide more details on the 82-year-old’s health. Hoffler has been Jackson’s attorney for nearly 37 years and is the chairwoman of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
How did this weekend’s conference go?
Hoffler: I think this weekend was great.
We’re so sad that Reverend could not join us, but his spirit is here. This is one of his favorite bands [performing at the closing ceremony]. We were expecting him here. We had the Qs here stepping, they were going to serenade him. We had the two cakes, the Omega cakes.
We feel his spirit. We love Reverend Jackson. He’s iconic. He’s inspirational. We feel that Dr. Haynes is standing on his shoulders. He’s a great successor, but our founder, Rev. Jackson, we just love and thank him so much for his vision, giving and inspiring all of us to continue his work.
There are going to be some people who read this story and are going to be concerned.
Don’t be concerned about Rev. Jackson because Rev. Jackson is fine. He just had a minor medical setback. But tomorrow, I think he’ll be fine.
What was the medical setback?
It was a small medical issue, so they had to go to the hospital, but he’ll be out tomorrow.
Rev. Haynes said he had to be forced to stay in the hospital because otherwise, he would’ve been on a plane down to Atlanta.
He wanted to be here. You can’t keep him down.
I remember he was in Washington with the students at Howard University protesting. He fell, hit his head, and went to the hospital. The next day, he was out.
That’s Rev. Jackson, you can’t hold them down. He really wanted to come. In fact, I was thinking he might halfway come from the hospital and come in, but he’s just amazing. An amazing person with an amazing spirit.
We’re excited about what the future holds for him, too, because he’s always with us. He’s been working very closely with Dr. Haynes, and it’s just the way we wanted to because Rev. Jackson is the only civil rights leader who had a chance to pick his successor. To be involved in that, that’s amazing.
Thank you to all the people who contributed their time, and their money to let him know we thank him, and we cannot thank him enough.
