Lord Nickens, who served for decades as a standard bearer for civil rights in Frederick County, died Friday night.

Nickens, a resident of Adamstown, was 99 years old.

Thelma Nickens, his widow, called Guy Djoken, the president of the Frederick County Chapter of the NAACP,  early Saturday morning,  to give him the sad news. 

The Frederick News Post reported that Lord Nickens had been hospitalized for a week before his death, suffering from  complications brought on by pneumonia.

Nickens served as president of the Frederick chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1972 to 1994, was one of the first Frederick residents to join the Army in 1940 under the Selective Service act, shook hands with Martin Luther King Jr. and received a plaque from Rosa Parks.

In 2009, he became was the first African-American to have a street in Frederick named for him.