Former New Orleans civil rights activist Rudy Lombard has died.
He was 75.
The one-time mayoral candidate’s conviction for a sit-in at a Canal Street store was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
He died Saturday of complications from pancreatic cancer.
The New Orleans Advocate reports Lombard spent the past 20 years or so in Evanston, Illinois, where he worked as a research scientist for NorthShore University HealthSystem, focusing on prostate cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease a decade ago.
He returned to New Orleans around Thanksgiving and began hospice care.
Lombard became involved with the civil rights movement while a business student at Xavier University in the late 1950s. He would later earn a doctorate in urban planning from Syracuse University.
Lombard is survived by his brother, Edwin Lombard, a judge on the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
