Ralph David Abernathy III, a former Georgia state senator and son of civil rights icon Ralph Abernathy, died Thursday morning after a three-year-long battle with colon cancer, according to reports.
He died two days before his 57th birthday, according to WSB-TV.
Abernathy’s political career was tainted after he was convicted of 35 felony charges for misusing state funds in 1998.
In the past year, he had been trying to raise $ 3.5 million to build a “freedom plaza” outside the West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, an iconic Civil Rights era landmark where his father was pastor.
Withers, ErnestThe former politician was the son of civil rights icon Ralph David Abernathy, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (looking out window and the elder Abernathy (to the right of King) ride the first desegregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., in December 1956.
“He was a long-time advocate for civil rights and human rights in our city,” Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin told the station. “He will be sadly missed.”
Abernathy was born in Montgomery, Ala., in 1959.
He was the son of Ralph David Abernathy, Jr., a leader of the Civil Rights movement and one of Martin Luther King’s closest friends.
The younger Abernathy earned a degree in English and Linguistics from Morehouse College in 1981.
From Atlanta, he was first elected to the state Senate in 1992 to represent Atlanta and a small portion of Cobb County.
He was convicted in 1998 on 35 felony charges related to false reimbursement requests to the Legislature.
Abernathy, a Democrat, served about a year of a four-year prison sentence.