Hosea Williams, civil rights leader, dies

One of the most colourful figures from the American civil rights movement, Hosea Williams, has died in Atlanta, at the age of seventy-four.

He had been suffering from cancer.

During the 1960s, Mr Williams served as a close aide to Martin Luther King, appearing alongside him at countless rallies to press for an end to racial segregation in the southern United States.

He returned to prominence in 1987 when led a civil rights march through an all-white area north of Atlanta, home to members of the supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.

He was also widely known for organising a national campaign to feed the hungry and the homeless at Christmas and Thanksgiving.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service