Longtime civil rights activist Ozell Sutton, who marched with Martin Luther King, dies at 90

ATLANTA _ Ozell Sutton, a longtime civil rights activist who was associated with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died. He was 90.

His daughter, Alta Sutton, told The Associated Press on Sunday her father died at Saint Joseph Hospital in Atlanta on Saturday. She said the family had celebrated his birthday nearly a week ago.

Ozell Sutton marched for equal rights alongside King in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 and was present at the Memphis hotel where King was assassinated in 1968.

In 2012, Sutton earned a Congressional Gold Medal in 2012 as one of the first African-Americans to serve in the United States Marine Corp. He was also director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Relations Service in Atlanta until he retired in 2003.

The Associated Press