James D. Peters, pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado and civil rights leader

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MIAMI – James D. Peters, a longtime Denver, Colorado pastor and civil rights leader who helped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organize the 1963 March on Washington, has died, according to CBS News.

Peters died on May 10 at the age 92.

Born on January 16, 1933, Peters told family members and church goers that God called on him to preach at 19-years-old.

He later became a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during segregation and the Civil Rights Movement.

Peters befriended King at one of the conference’s gatherings in Birmingham, Alabama and the two organized three train cars to travel from Bridgeport to Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington, where he delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream Speech.”

On the 60th anniversary of the march, he shared his memories of the event with CBS News.

“We were up by the Lincoln Memorial, thousands and thousands, you’ve never seen so many people,” Peters said. “A lot of people had to bring their children because they said, ‘This is history,’ it was. A lot of tears were shed. Mine and the others because we had fought for this for so long.”

Before moving to Colorado, Peters served as a pastor at a church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where King presented him with a plaque in front of his congregation.

Friends and family will gather for a funeral service at New Hope Baptist Church this weekend to celebrate his life.