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Former Cleveland Browns player Jim Brown has died at the age of 87. According to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for the NFL legend said he died peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday night. Brown is survived by his wife, Monique, as well as their child together.
In addition to his career on the field as a fullback and running back, Brown was known for his civil rights activism throughout the 1960s. In 1967, he spearheaded the Cleveland Summit — a meeting of prominent Black athletes who supported Muhammad Ali’s stance against the Vietnam War. Furthermore, Brown founded the Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change in 1988. The organization teaches life skills to at-risk youth, as well as incarcerated adults and ex-convicts. Following Brown’s retirement from the NFL in 1965, he also became known for his acting career. He appeared as Jefferson in the 1967 war film “The Dirty Dozen,” as well as several blaxploitation films throughout the 1970s.
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Following the announcement, fans and former colleagues are publicly paying their respects to the athlete.
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