Reverend Orange Transistions...

Reverend James Orange was a beloved leader with a big loving heart. When he called me "leader" I felt honored and just blessed to be in his presence. Through my involvement with the Martin Luther King March planning committee I witnessed his unwavering inclusion and advocacy for lgbtq/sgl people as well as all others marginalized. He embraced Darlene Hudson, Kirk Surgeon and myself as his openly lesbian and gay sister and brothers. He gave so much to the historical and the contemporary human rights movement. Please send your love, prayers and/or positive energy to his wonderful family. I will miss him tremendously. -Craig Washington

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid= 111444

Reverend James Orange, a leader in the Civil Rights, Labor, and Anti-Poverty Movements for over four decades, died Saturday at Crawford Long Hospital. He was 65-years-old. According to the Georgia State University Library Web site, Orange was active in the civil rights movement throughout his youth, working to integrate schools and organize bus boycotts in Birmingham. Orange worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was present when King was assassinated in 1968. Orange was involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s and '70s.

More recently, Orange has worked with a number of national and international civil rights organizations including the People's Agenda for Voter Empowerment where he worked on voter education and registration drives throughout Georgia.According to the SCLC, Orange was born in Birmingham, Alabama but lived much of his life in southwest Atlanta.Rev. Orange leaves to cherish his memory a loving wife, Cleo; five children, two grandchildren, and a host of relatives and friends in Atlanta and Alabama, the SCLC said.

Funeral arrangements are still pending.

A biography of Orange was provided by the SCLC:

THE REV. JAMES E. ORANGE, a native of Birmingham, Ala., who resided in southwest Atlanta for four decades while fighting the good fight for equality and social justice for all mankind, was a courageous rights activist whose 6'5" frame was first seen in 1963 with King and Abernathy during marches in Birmingham to help integrate facilities and transportation in Alabama, in particular, and the South, in general. More significantly, it was his 1965 activism in Selma and Perry Co., Ala., that not only almost caused his lynching upon residents protested the death of Jimmie Lee
Jackson, who died, at 26, of an Alabama state trooper's gunshots while attempting to get his relatives registered to vote, but which also best describes Orange's heroism that ultimately led to the infamous Selma to Montgomery march and the Voting Rights Act, legislation signed into law by President Johnson in Aug., 1965.

As a project coordinator with King and Abernathy at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) from 1965-70, Rev. Orange later became a regional coordinator with AFL-CIO in Atlanta. He retired in 2005 after 35 years of tireless service within the southeast where he incorporated beliefs of nonviolence and a progressive society toward a more cohesive unity between national labor leaders and the "beloved community".

Rev. Orange, since 1995, was the founder-general coordinator of the M.L. King, Jr. March Committee-Africa/ African-American Renaissance Committee, Inc., an organization that not only coordinated the nation's most-watched and heavily-attended commemorative events honoring the life and legacy of Dr. King, but led in the efforts, with former Atlanta Mayor/former U.N. Ambassador Andy Young, to promote industry and general commerce between Atlanta and the nation with South Africa.

From www.11alive.com