ATLANTA (AP) — A civil rights lawyer who became Georgia’s first black federal court judge has died.

Retired U.S. District Judge Horace Ward died Saturday at age 88. Funeral arrangements are pending, said Alfonso Dawson Mortuary funeral director Andre Hannah in Atlanta.

Ward challenged segregationist practices at the University of Georgia in the early 1950s.

He had earned degrees from Morehouse College and Atlanta University, which later became Clark Atlanta.But his application to the University of Georgia law school was rejected in 1951, despite his qualifications. He launched a legal challenge against the university that helped pave the way for the civil rights movement.

Ward, from LaGrange, Georgia, went on to earn a law degree from Northwestern University.