Civil rights leader C.T. Vivian, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 95

Rev. C.T. Vivian, an icon of the civil rights movement, has died, The Associated Press reports.

Vivian died of natural causes at his home in Atlanta on Friday, Don Rivers, his business partner and friend, told the AP. He was 95.

Vivian's career as a civil rights leader goes back to 1940s sit-in demonstrations, the AP notes, and he was an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1960s, Vivian served as national director of affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, "directing protest activities and training in nonviolence, and coordinating voter registration and community development projects," The New York Times reports. The Times in its obituary remembers Vivian as a "paladin of nonviolence on the front lines of bloody confrontations." He became the interim president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2012.

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Vivian in 2013 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, with the White House saying at the time, "the Rev. C.T. Vivian was a stalwart activist on the march toward racial equality. Whether at a lunch counter, on a Freedom Ride, or behind the bars of a prison cell, he was unafraid to take bold action in the face of fierce resistance." Former President Barack Obama in the ceremony also praised him for "pushing us closer to our founding ideals."

Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday remembered Vivian as a "true trailblazer" who "made this nation and world a better place," while the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center wrote, "Courageous. Brilliant. Sacrificial. A powerfully well-lived life that lifted humanity. We will miss you."