Benjamin Hooks Died at the Age of 85

Benjamin L. Hooks, a golden-tongued orator who led of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for 16 years, died Thursday at the age of 85.

State Representative Ulysses Jones, a member of the church where Mr. Hooks was pastor, said he died at his home in Memphis after a long illness, The Associated Press reported.

While best known for leading the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group, Mr. Hooks had a varied career that bridged the often disparate worlds of black and white America. He was a Baptist minister who headed two churches. He was a lawyer and a criminal court judge — the first black to be appointed to the bench in his native Tennessee. He was the first of his race to be named to the five-member Federal Communications Commission. And he was a businessman who years ago owned several fried chicken franchises in Memphis.