US civil rights leader Lowery dies aged 98

WASHINGTON: US civil rights leader Reverend Joseph Lowery who campaigned with Martin Luther King died on Friday aged 98.

"Our beloved, Rev. Dr. Joseph Echols Lowery, made his transition peacefully at home" surrounded by his daughters, the Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute said, adding "his legacy of service and struggle was long and rich."

Born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1921, Lowery worked closely alongside leading figures in the civil rights movement and with King co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) civil rights group in 1957.

He was chosen to speak at the inauguration of the country’s first black president Barack Obama in 2009, and later that year was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.