MLK lieutenant, SCLC leader dies

One of the lieutenants of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement has died.

The Rev. James E. Orange of Birmingham, Ala., died on Saturday at Crawford Long Hospital. He was 65.

Orange marched in his hometown in 1963 alongside King and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, to help integrate facilities and transportation. He lived in southwest Atlanta for more than four decades.

As project coordinator with the SCLC from 1965 to 1970, Orange later became a regional coordinator with AFL-CIO in Atlanta, where he incorporated King's nonviolence philosophy and promoted unity between national labor leaders and King's "beloved community." He retired in 2005.

Since 1995, Orange served as the general coordinator of the Martin Luther King Jr. March Committee-Africa/African-American Renaissance Committee. The organization coordinates the country's most watched and heavily attended events of the King national holiday and led in the efforts to promote industry and general commerce between Atlanta and the U.S. with South Africa.

Orange is survived by his wife, Cleo; five children; two grandchildren; and a host of relatives and friends in Atlanta and Alabama.

Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced next week.

(The Associated Press)