JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, has died at 90.
Tutu was an uncompromising foe of apartheid, South Africa’s brutal regime of oppression against its Black majority. Tutu worked passionately and non-violently for its downfall.
The buoyant, blunt-spoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and later as the Archbishop of Cape Town, as well as frequent public demonstrations, to galvanize public opinion against racial inequity, both at home and around the world. He was also a leading advocate for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage.
His successor says Tutu's “legacy is moral strength, moral courage and clarity.”
