As a photojournalist, he covered the last lynchings in South Carolina and Georgia, traveled to Africa and Europe, and documented the court cases that ultimately led to school desegregation.

And at 93, Alex Rivera, who worked for the Pittsburgh Courier from 1945 to 1965, occasionally still covered a news or sports event when a friend could not. On Oct. 23, Alexander McAllister Rivera made his transition in Durham, N.C., after months of declining health. He was 95.

ALEX RIVERA

Two years ago, Rivera was interviewed by the New Pittsburgh Courier for a Black History Month feature.

“In the 1930s photography was limited, cameras were limited, it was very primitive by today’s standards,” he said. “I started with a Graflex camera you look down into, then a Speed Graphic, then the Power Graphic. The fastest (film) speed was f32, now it’s 3,200. When it went to 64, I thought I died and gone to heaven.”

Born in 1913, Rivera was the oldest of three children born to a practicing dentist in Greensboro, N.C. After graduating from high school he enrolled at Howard University, while working at the Washington Tribune, then the largest Black-owned printing business in Washington, D.C.

After leaving Howard in 1939 due to a lack of money and returning home, he received an offer he couldn’t refuse from founder and president of  (now) North Carolina Central State University, James Shepard.

Shepard asked Rivera to organize the school’s news bureau, paying him a salary and allowing him to finish his undergraduate degree. Although he subsequently worked for newspapers like the Norfolk Journal and Guide and the Pittsburgh Courier, Rivera remained the university’s publicist and official photographer until his retirement in 1993.

His journalism career was put on hold while he put in a stint with U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War II, Rivera’s post-war work covering the dismantling of Jim Crow and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement (often at great personal risk) became internationally known.

“Because I could write, I was cheaper,” he said. “So the Courier sent me everywhere”

One of the places he was sent was Madison County, N.C., for the trial of Mark Ingram, a Black man who had been charged with “leering” at a white woman.

“By the time I got there he’d already been convicted,” he said. “But once I sent it out and the national press picked it up, he never went to jail because the local authorities were too embarrassed.”

In 1947, Rivera covered the murder trial of Willy Earl, South Carolina’s last lynching victim. Earl was hanged by a mob of cab drivers for allegedly making a date with one of their daughters. There were 52 defendants—all were acquitted.

“They had a procession driving through town. It was a lynching party,” said Rivera. “It was a big trial. Because the FBI had been looking to see if any federal law was violated, they knew where every person was in each car, even where they stopped to fix a flat. They didn’t deny a thing.

“I still remember when that jury foreman, who a student at a Christian college, read the verdict. He said, “They only did what any red-blooded American would do.’”

In 1948, Rivera saw what red-blooded Americans in Montgomery County, Ga., would do to Blacks they didn’t like. One night a group of them drove to the house of Isaiah Nixon and called for him to come out on his porch. They gunned him down in front of his wife and children. There was no trial for Nixon’s killers.

“Lynching wasn’t always hanging, it was a mob killing,” said Rivera. “I was crazy back then. But I always traveled alone so I could just go if I had to. They aren’t proud of doing what they did and want it kept quiet. So they’d kill you too to keep it that way.”

Even though these assignments were dangerous and intriguing, and even though he later toured Africa and Europe with then-Vice President Richard Nixon—even joining him for an audience with the pope, Rivera said his most memorable assignment was covering the lawsuits against the Clerendon County, S.C. School District for failing to provide “separate but equal” education to Black children.

The lead attorney was Thurgood Marshall, who won the decisive case. But Rivera said the judge tipped the scales in his favor.

“The judge was local and familiar with everything,” said Rivera. “He called Thurgood in and said he didn’t want to hear another separate but equal case. He said, ‘This is the case and this is the time. You’ll win here and lose on appeal, but that automatically gets you to the Supreme Court—and that’s where you want to be.’ That was the most memorable story I covered. It changed the whole country.”

Robert Lawson, who has known Rivera since going to work for him in 1959, said Rivera is like a father to him. He taught him everything about photography while Lawson was attending NCCU.

“He’s best man I’ve ever met. If not for him I wouldn’t be here today,” said Lawson. “He gave me the kind of information you can’t get elsewhere. And if he likes you he’ll do anything for you; if he doesn’t, don’t ask.”

Lawson said that Rivera made a point to participate in the early voting in North Carolina so his vote would be counted in this historic election.

Rivera recently had the NCCU Hall of Fame named for him. Though flattered, Rivera isn’t bigheaded about the honor.

“It’s only because I lived so long,” he said.

In 1993, Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. recognized Rivera’s lifelong contributions to the state and nation by awarding him the Order of the Longleaf Pine, the highest civilian honor that can be granted in the State of North Carolina.

In 1999, he was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame as a photojournalist. The North Carolina Museum of History honored Rivera earlier this year with an exhibit of his works, “Bearing Witness: Civil Rights Photographs of Alexander Rivera.”

Alex was united in marriage to Faye Faucette Rivera. She, along with one sibling, Doris Burgess, preceded him in death. Survivors include a son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Eric M. and Robin Rivera of Durham, a sister, Raven Elliott, formerly of Detroit, Mich., an adopted son and daughter, Robert and Clara Lawson of Durham, and extended family.

Services are to be held at 3 p.m., Oct. 31 at St. Joseph AME Church in Durham, N.C. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the “Alex. M. and Faye F. Rivera Scholarship Fund” through the Foundation Office at North Carolina Central University, 1801 Fayetteville St., Durham, N.C. 27707.