James E. Orange; Civil Rights Leader Was a Top Aide to King

The Rev. James E. Orange, right, and Obang Metho pray last year at Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb in Atlanta. (By John Bazemore -- Associated Press)

"The children's demonstrations in Birmingham had transformed James Orange from hulking high school drifter to precocious minister of nonviolence," Taylor Branch noted in his 2006 book "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68."

In 1965, as part of a voter registration drive, Rev. Orange was organizing a boycott in three southwest Alabama counties when he was arrested and jailed in Perry County. He had been charged with disorderly conduct and inciting students to participate in voting rights drives, as well as contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Residents in Marion, Ala., gathered for a march and prayer vigil at the jail for the young organizer with the baritone voice who was known for singing freedom songs.

"Rumors had gotten out that I was supposed to be lynched in jail," Rev. Orange told the (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger last year. The protesters "didn't get no more than out of the church, right in front of the courthouse and city hall, and they were brutally beaten."

During that Feb. 18, 1965, protest, Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young man who was trying to get his grandfather and mother to safety, was shot in the stomach by an Alabama state trooper. He died several days later, and his death became a rallying point for civil rights activists.

In Alabama, King and other movement leaders organized the first Selma-to-Montgomery march, which came to be called "Bloody Sunday" after police pummeled demonstrators with batons. In March 1965, a third attempt by demonstrators to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge succeeded. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act extending the right to blacks in August.

Rev. Orange, who lived in Atlanta, remained with the SCLC until 1977, when he joined the AFL-CIO. He helped Cesar Chavez organize the farm workers movement. He was known as a bridge builder between people of sometimes competing interests.

He also founded the M.L. King Jr. March Committee-Africa/African American Renaissance Committee, through which he organized the annual King holiday march in Atlanta and promoted trade between the United States and South Africa. He joined in recent protests demanding U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants.

"He was a movement person," said Evelyn Gibson Lowery, founder of SCLC Women.

Over the past 20 years, Rev. Orange played a key role in a civil rights tour sponsored by Lowery's group to expose young people to the movement.

Survivors, in addition to his daughter Jamida, include his wife, Cleophas Orange; three children, Deirdre Orange, Tamara Orange and Cleon Orange, all of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.

A daughter, Pamela Orange, died in 2007.