Civil rights activist, aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He played a vital role in the birth and success of the modern civil rights movement. His arrest in 1965 is considered one of the catalysts for the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. The Southern native later joined the civil rights marches led by Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy in Atlanta in 1963. As a young man, he was active in the civil rights movement, especially with the movement to integrate the schools and bus boycotts in Birmingham. He also played key roles in civil rights actions in Memphis and Chicago. Soon after, he became a project coordinator for the Southern Chirstian Leadership Conference(S.C.L.C.), bringing young people into the movement. He, who was ordained a Baptist minister in 1967, worked with the S.C.L.C. until 1977, when he became an organizer for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. He also was standing below the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. The rest of his life he never stopped teaching activists and organizers the principles and basic tactics and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience. He served numerous national and international labor and civil rights organizations, notably as state chair of the People's Agenda for Voter Empowerment, working in voter education and registration drives throughout Georgia. He later worked with Cesar Chavez in organizing the United Farm Workers. He was instrumental in the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa and worked to help with transportation needs there. In 2003, he helped organize the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a caravan of 18 buses that crossed the country in support of legal status for illegal immigrants. Five years earlier, he went to New Orleans to work on a campaign to unionize thousands of housekeepers, banquet waiters and laundry-room employees working in the city's hotels. He died suddenly a few years later in an Atlanta hospital.
Civil rights activist, aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He played a vital role in the birth and success of the modern civil rights movement. His arrest in 1965 is considered one of the catalysts for the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. The Southern native later joined the civil rights marches led by Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy in Atlanta in 1963. As a young man, he was active in the civil rights movement, especially with the movement to integrate the schools and bus boycotts in Birmingham. He also played key roles in civil rights actions in Memphis and Chicago. Soon after, he became a project coordinator for the Southern Chirstian Leadership Conference(S.C.L.C.), bringing young people into the movement. He, who was ordained a Baptist minister in 1967, worked with the S.C.L.C. until 1977, when he became an organizer for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. He also was standing below the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. The rest of his life he never stopped teaching activists and organizers the principles and basic tactics and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience. He served numerous national and international labor and civil rights organizations, notably as state chair of the People's Agenda for Voter Empowerment, working in voter education and registration drives throughout Georgia. He later worked with Cesar Chavez in organizing the United Farm Workers. He was instrumental in the election of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa and worked to help with transportation needs there. In 2003, he helped organize the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a caravan of 18 buses that crossed the country in support of legal status for illegal immigrants. Five years earlier, he went to New Orleans to work on a campaign to unionize thousands of housekeepers, banquet waiters and laundry-room employees working in the city's hotels. He died suddenly a few years later in an Atlanta hospital.
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