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DURHAM (AP) - Photojournalist Alex Rivera, who spent his career covering the civil rights movement and working at North Carolina Central University, has died. He was 95.

Chancellor Charlie Nelms said in a statement Friday that Rivera was an integral part of the university's history and made "invaluable contributions to the world through his photography" during his career.

"He was a valued member of our community and we were deeply honored to have him in our midst for so many years," Nelms said.

Rivera was born in Greensboro and grew up immersed in civil rights activism with his father, an active member of the NAACP. He attended Howard University and later worked as a Washington Tribune photographer in Washington, D.C., the statement said.

In 1939, Rivera was recruited to create the news bureau at the North Carolina College for Negroes, which later became North Carolina Central University. He left to serve in the military during World War II, but returned to photojournalism after the war.

Rivera joined the Norfolk Journal and Guide, then in 1946 became a North Carolina-based correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier, among the country's top black-owned newspapers.

Rivera covered the last lynchings in South Carolina and Alabama, and legal challenges to school segregation. He won a Global Syndicate Award for his coverage in 1955.

He returned to the university's public relations department in 1977, where he led the office - and took advantage of opportunities to photograph college athletics - until his retirement in 1993. That same year, then-Gov. James Hunt awarded Rivera the Order of the Longleaf Pine - the highest civilian honor the governor can bestow.

The North Carolina Museum of History featured an exhibit of his work earlier this year.

The university said funeral arrangements were pending.