Tragic Last Days: Jesse Jackson, 82, Trapped in a Wheelchair, Struggling to Eat and Being Minded Around-The-Clock by Nurse and Two Aides
Rev. Jesse Jackson struggles to eat in his old age.
Aug. 25 2024, Published 12:30 p.m. ET
Iconic civil rights leader Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr now requires the assistance of a nurse and two aids as the political leader struggles to eat.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the frail 82-year-old former firebrand was spotted confined to a wheelchair in a darkened restaurant at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place during the final day of the Democratic National Convention.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson appeared at the Democratic National Convention.
Slowed by his waning health, the reverend tried to eat a breakfast of strawberries, grapes and cantaloupe.
According to outlets, Jackson would stab his fork into a piece of fruit but take five to ten seconds to reach his lips. He would allegedly get stuck in that position, caught halfway, but he kept working at it.
The room was reportedly closed to the public, leaving the civil rights leader alone with a nurse and two aides, Shelley Davis and Christopher Hodges.
Jesse Jackson is always accompanied by his nurse and two aides.
In 2017, the iconic civil rights leader was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Last year, Jackson had to step down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Chicago-based organization fighting for progressive social change he founded in 1996.
The once great speaker now has a slowed speech and struggles to get a soft, guttural, blurring, indistinct word out.
When Davis and Hodges were asked what hours they worked for the reverend, Jackson attempted to speak, and David translated: "He said 9 to 5."
Jackson founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 1996.
"We have never done 9 to 5," said Davis, who has worked for Jackson for 24 years and once Googled "Prince Charles's butler" to learn how to best do his job.
"Even when he was in the hospital (with COVID, in 2021) he was not 9 to 5," added Hodges. "We'd get phone calls day and night. You know, even when we leave, we never really leave. This person wants to talk to the reverend. That person. It never ends."
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An ordained minister, Jackson worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
During his time in politics, Jackson sought to broaden the umbrella of the Democratic party as an activist and ran for president in 1984.
Jackson became the second Black American to seek a major-party nomination for president after Rep. Shirley Chisholm ran for the White House in 1972, running as a Democrat.
Despite some pushback, Jackson was a formidable candidate — winning five primaries and caucuses in 1984 — becoming the first Black politician to win any major-party state primary contest.
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Jackson received a standing ovation when he arrived on the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
The political icon waved and gave a thumbs-up from his wheelchair on stage but did not make a speech.
