By: Alyssa Wilson

Robert Parris Moses, a civil rights activist essential in the fight for voting rights, died at the age of 86 on Sunday.  

According to NBC News, Moses led voter registration drives in the South in the 1960s. He also worked to improve minority education in multiple subjects, including math, through the Algebra Project founded in 1982.  

RELATED: Former Vice President Walter Mondale Dead at 93 

He was a pioneer working to dismantle segregation as the Mississippi field director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Associated Press reported. He was also a key figure in the 1964 Freedom Summer, wherein hundreds of students went to the South to register people to vote.  

While fighting for voting rights, he was beaten and arrested. When he filed charges against the white person who attacked him, an all-white jury acquitted the man, and Moses had to flee the county with protection. In 1963, he and other activists were driving through Greenwood, Mississippi, when someone began shooting at them. Despite these incidents, his fight for justice did not end.  

Outside of activism, he worked as a teacher in Tanzania, Africa, and then went to Harvard to earn a doctorate in philosophy before going to teach high school math in Massachusetts.  

Multiple civil rights groups reacted to his death online and on social media. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center tweeted about Moses, saying, “What a brilliant, conscious, compassionately active human being. Educator. Organizer. Leader. Rest well, sir.”  

RELATED: Attorney, Legal Analyst Midwin Charles Dead at 47, Family Announced 

Derrick Johnson, the President of the NAACP, gave Moses his flowers for his fight to protect the voting rights of the Black community. He tweeted, “Throughout his life, Bob Moses bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice. He was a strategist at the core of the voting rights movement and beyond. He was a giant.”  

Derrick Johnson, the President of the NAACP, gave Moses his flowers for his fight to protect the voting rights of the Black community. He tweeted, “Throughout his life, Bob Moses bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice. He was a strategist at the core of the voting rights movement and beyond. He was a giant.”  

Throughout his life, Bob Moses bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice. He was a strategist at the core of the voting rights movement and beyond.

He was a giant.

May his light continue to guide us as we face another wave of Jim Crow laws.

Rest in Power, Bob.

— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) July 25, 2021

Former President Barack Obama said Moses was a hero of his. “His quiet confidence helped shape the civil rights movement, and he inspired generations of young people looking to make a difference. Michelle and I send our prayers to Janet and the rest of the Moses family,” he tweeted.  

Bob Moses was a hero of mine. His quiet confidence helped shape the civil rights movement, and he inspired generations of young people looking to make a difference. Michelle and I send our prayers to Janet and the rest of the Moses family.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 26, 2021

Social media reactions continued to pour in on Sunday night, with many Black leaders weighing in.  

My dearest brother Bob Moses – spiritual genius, intellectual giant and moral titan – has left us! Words fall short! He was larger than life and one of the great exemplars of our humanity! Let us never forget him!

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) July 25, 2021

Today, the world lost a giant.

Bob Moses charted the path for teacher-activists to follow.

He showed us that democracy must start with loving & connecting with the ignored — and that they have the power to lead themselves.

I pray that we will continue to follow his example.

— Jamaal Bowman (@JamaalBowmanNY) July 25, 2021

“When people asked what to do, he asked them what they thought. At meetings, he usually sat in the back and spoke last. He slept on floors, wore overalls, shared the risks, took the blows, he dug in deeply.” – Tom Hayden on Bob Moses, who has journeyed home and who loved us so. pic.twitter.com/xOYioFKHmO

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 25, 2021

Before I knew him as Bob Moses, one of the architects of the Freedom Summer and a hero of The Movement, I knew him as Uncle Bob, who tested out his math games with me and bought me Home Alone for the Super Nintendo when I was 8. Rest In Peace. You’ve done well. pic.twitter.com/2fREMg8cOm

— David Dennis Jr. (@DavidDTSS) July 25, 2021

America owes a great debt to this hero. Bob Moses was an American iconic civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of SNCC, voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. He’s an ancestor now and demands we fight to protect our vote. pic.twitter.com/ukKniF1cwx

— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) July 25, 2021

I was fortunate to give Robert “Bob” Moses his flowers while he could still smell them. When I read “Radical Equations,” I felt a pathway open up in my math pedagogy that I hadn’t seen before. Thankful for the work this giant put on this Earth as he now joins the ancestors. RIP pic.twitter.com/GhvP11xYvm

— José Vilson believes in us. (@TheJLV) July 25, 2021

Bob Moses is my model for organizing. Principled, intellectual, humble, deliberate, willing to work with all who come, never berating but consistently challenging. Fun loving, kind, reflective, tender.

— Imani Perry (@imaniperry) July 25, 2021

Rest in peace, Bob Moses. What a great, kind and brilliant man. We are losing the front lines of our civil rights movement and just when we need their voices most. We still have so much work to finish. Just so, so much. ? https://t.co/HBrpT4qZu4

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid ? (@JoyAnnReid) July 25, 2021

If you or someone you know is struggling from trauma triggered by this story, resources are available here.