Julius Chambers, a lawyer whose practice was in the forefront of the civil rights movement in North Carolina, has died at 76.
A statement issued by his Charlotte law firm said Mr Chambers died on Friday after months of ill health.
In 1964 he opened a practice that became the state’s first integrated law firm and he and his partners won cases that shaped civil rights legislation, including Swann versus Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education regarding school bussing.
The Charlotte Observer newspaper said Mr Chambers took eight cases before the US Supreme Court and won them all. He also served as chancellor of his alma mater, North Carolina Central University, from 1993 to 2001.
Firm partner Geraldine Sumter said: “Mr Chambers was not the first lawyer of colour to try to address the issues of equality.
“He would tell you he had people like Buddy Malone of Durham that he looked to, the Kennedys out of Winston-Salem. The thing that Mr Chambers brought to that struggle was a very focused, determined attitude that things were going to change.”
The North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People called Mr Chambers “a man of tremendous courage”.
“His home and his car were firebombed on separate occasions in 1965 and his office was burned to the ground in 1971, during the height of some of his most contentious civil rights litigation,” the NAACP said.
Attorney general Roy Cooper said Mr Chambers “set a courageous example of doing what is right, regardless of the cost”.