James Bevel, who fought for civil rights alongside Martin Luther King in the 1960s and who more recently was convicted of incest, died at his daughter's home in Virginia, The Washington Post reported Saturday. He was 72. The Reverend Bevel died Friday in Springfield, Virginia, his daughter Sherrilynn Bevel told the daily.
Bevel was one of King's top aides and was a key figure in the 1965 march from Selma to the Alabama capital, Montgomery that culminated in violence and led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. More recently, Bevel helped Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organised the 1995 Million Man March in Washington.
A respected preacher, Bevel was described as "creative genius" by civil rights leader and Reverend Jesse Jackson in a recent interview. Married four times and father of 16 children with seven women, Bevel in April was convicted by a Loudon County, Virginia, of having sexual intercourse in the early 1990s with a teenage daughter of his. He was sentenced in October to 15 years in jail, but was released on bond because of ill health, Sherrilynn Bevel said.