The Rev. James Orange has taken off his marching boots and gone home to the Lord.

The bear of a man who organized marches and workers for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and, later, for trade unions, was lionized by the civil rights movement’s dwindling band of leaders and others during a four-hour service Saturday in King International Chapel at Morehouse College.

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Larry Randall takes off his hat as he passes the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the body of the Rev. James Orange. They were in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

JOHNNY CRAWFORD/AJC (ENLARGE)

Martin Luther King III, Bernice King and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young smile and laugh after Elizabeth Omilami joked with Young during the funeral services for the Rev. James Orange.

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Orange, described as "a courageous leader for our struggle for racial justice and equality," by Christine King Farris, the Rev. King's sister, was born in Birmingham and lived in southwest Atlanta. He died Feb. 16 at age 65 at Emory Crawford Long Hospital.

In between, Orange's behind-the-scenes yet powerful presence was felt in Selma; Memphis; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Albany, and South Africa.

"Hey leader" was both a greeting and rallying cry that Orange used to imbue a sense of purpose and responsibility into every person he met.

Leaders must serve, after all, and none performed like Orange, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said in an emotional tribute.

"He was a pillar of the modern-day civil rights movement, this good and decent man, this honorable brother," said Lewis, consoled by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin after his talk. "He was a man of raw courage. James Orange was never missing in action."

Orange joined the movement in 1957 and was tapped by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1965 to help organize in Alabama. Orange's arrest and incarceration that year triggered a night-time demonstration in which young Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by an Alabama state trooper.

Jackson's death was the catalyst for the Selma-to-Montgomery march that ended in Bloody Sunday and, eventually, passage of the federal Voting Rights Act.

A songster with a baritone voice that let all know he meant business, Orange could silence a Birmingham bar when King or the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy Sr., King's top aide, needed to be heard. King called Orange the movement's Ground Crew Leader.

"He was the kind of person who did the work and never took credit. But that didn't bother him," eulogized sister Marion Easley of Birmingham. "He's in heaven now, and guess what he's doing? He's organizing a march. And, oh, what a march!"

Orange organized, marched, got beaten and was jailed in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, Illinois and beyond. Yet he returned to the front lines with his non-violent beliefs intact.

With the movement succeeding, and dwindling, Orange took his organizational talents to the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. Later, he served as a special representative of the AFL-CIO.

"He helped untold thousands of families walk through the doorway of opportunity," said Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO's international secretary-treasurer.

Orange, though, never lost his civil-justice bones.

Starting in 1995, he organized the annual King Day march in Atlanta. In 2000, bullhorn in hand, he descended upon the Florida state Capitol to fight affirmative-action rollbacks. Orange even took his organizational talents to South Africa to rally alongside Nelson Mandela.

"This giant of a man," said former Atlanta mayor and civil rights leader Andrew Young, "had an impact on this world. He went around the world making peace. (So) we can't let him down. We've still got a lot of work to do."

Lewis, himself beaten bloody at Selma, said Orange's legacy of leadership will live on.

"The best way to honor James Orange is to finish the nonviolent revolution," Lewis said. "We can help eradicate poverty and hunger and educate all our children and provide health care for people and save this planet we call home."

Martin Luther King III, quoting one of his father's famous speeches, called Orange "a drum major for justice, righteousness and truth."

Orange major marches onward and upward.