Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks dies

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Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks dies

Benjamin L. Hooks, a champion of minorities and the poor and former executive director of the NAACP has died.

In a Monday, May 8, 2006 file photo, Dr. Benjamin Hooks smiles during a news conference in St. Louis. Benjamin L. Hooks, a champion of minorities and the poor and former executive director of the NAACP has died. State Rep. Ulysses Jones, a family friend, said Hooks died early Thursday, April 15, 2010 in Memphis, Tenn. He was 85.

In this Nov. 5, 2007 file photo, President Bush, left, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Civil Rights pioneer Benjamin Hooks, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Hooks, a champion of minorities and the poor whose longtime tenure as executive director of the NAACP included leading his organization through a deadly firebombing campaign that targeted his group, died early Thursday said State Rep. Ulysses Jones. He was 85.

In a May 17, 1979 file photo, Linda Brown Smith, left, the plaintiff in the case that resulted in the 1954 landmark ruling in favor of school desegregation, and Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the NAACP, are shown on the steps of the South Carolina State House during ceremonies observing the 25th anniversay of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Columbus, S.C.

In a Friday, July 6, 1984 file photo, Benjamin L. Hooks, Executive Director of the NAACP, presents the Dr. H. Claude Hudson Medal of Freedom Award and the 1984 Olympics Medal of Friendship Award to the Jackson family, represented by Michael Jackson.

In a Monday, May 4, 1982 file photo, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., appears beside NAACP Director Benjamin Hooks in Washington.

President Bush, right, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, center, stand with civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks as they visit the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated. They had also toured Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, in Memphis, Tenn., Friday, June 30, 2006.

In a Friday, April 4, 2008 file photo, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., third from left, stands at the spot where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tenn. Second from left is American civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks, and second from right is Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

In a Saturday, Jan. 24, 1987 file photo, Coretta Scott King, second from left, SCLC President Joseph Lowery, center, Mrs. Lowery, and NAACP President Benjamin Hooks march to the Forsyth County Courthouse in Ga.

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In a Monday, May 8, 2006 file photo, Dr. Benjamin Hooks smiles during a news conference in St. Louis. Benjamin L. Hooks, a champion of minorities and the poor and former executive director of the NAACP has died. State Rep. Ulysses Jones, a family friend, said Hooks died early Thursday, April 15, 2010 in Memphis, Tenn. He was 85.

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