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Rev. C.T. Vivian, key civil rights leader, has died at 95

c.t. vivian
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
David Goldman/AP
FILE - In this Jan. 4, 2012 file photo, civil rights activist C.T. Vivian sits at his home in Atlanta. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund will honor Vivian with a lifetime achievement award this week. Spokeswoman Angela Brown said in a release that Vivian, a freedom rider and Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizer, is being honored by the organization Thursday, Aug 15, 2013 at its 46th annual Anniversary Celebration in Birmingham. Vivian joined in his first sit-in demonstrations in the 1940s in Peoria, Ill., long before the movement became national news. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
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ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. C.T. Vivian has died at the age of 95.

He was an early civil rights leader who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later directed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Vivian's civil rights work began in the 1940s with sit-in demonstrations in Peoria, Ill. He met King soon after the budding civil rights leader’s victory in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Vivian helped organize the Freedom Rides to integrate busing across the South, and risked his life to register voters in Alabama.

President Barack Obama gave Vivian the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.