Civil Rights Leader F.D. Reese Dies at 88

Frederick D. Reese, an early leader in the Alabama civil rights movement who invited Martin Luther King Jr. to work in Selma, has died. He was 88.

James Perkins, pastor of Selma’s Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, confirmed Reese’s death Thursday after speaking with family members. Reese served as pastor of the church for 50 years.

The minister and educator was known as F.D. Reese. He invited King to Selma in the 1960s to help in the fight for voting rights for African-Americans. Reese was a leader of a group of activists who became known as the “Courageous Eight.”

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