Civil-rights fighter Rev. Willie Barrow dies

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Willie Barrow, a front-line civil rights fighter for decades and a mentor to younger generations of activists, died today in Chicago. She was 90.

Barrow was a field organizer for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marched on Washington and Selma in the 1960s and more recently focused concern on Chicago's gun violence and changes to the Voting Rights Act.

She had been hospitalized for treatment of a blood clot in her lung, said fellow activist the Rev. Michael Pfleger.

"She's one of those icons in the movement we've been able to hold onto for a long time, to learn from, to be loved by, to be challenged by," Pfleger said.

Barrow helped organize sit-ins and boycotts in the South with civil-rights icons including King, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

Alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barrow co-founded the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, which would become Operation PUSH.