Civil rights icon Dr. Hazel Dukes, an Alabama native and president of the NAACP New York State Conference, has died.

She was 92 years old.

“I’m saddened to hear of the passing of my true friend, sister and friend for more than 40 years, Hazel Dukes,” reads a statement published Saturday by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“She was a force of nature for justice and an activist of the highest order. She made a difference, and we will forever be indebted to her.”

“I spoke to her by phone just two days ago,” he continued.

“We will never have another Hazel Dukes, but I am grateful that we had this one.”

Dukes was born in Montgomery as the only child of Edward and Alice Dukes, according to the NAACP archives.

She enrolled at Alabama State Teachers College in 1949 but later moved to New York and became the first Black American to work for the Nassau County Attorney’s Office.

In her lifetime, Dukes was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the YWCA City of New York John La Farge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice, the Guy R. Brewer Humanitarian Award, and the 2007 The Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business Award, among many others.

“A great pioneer and warrior for social and racial justice, Hazel Dukes was my champion for as long as I can remember and close to all of us in the Cuomo family,” former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote in a post to X.

“America has lost one of the greats.”