Joseph Beasley, a longtime Georgia human rights activist, has died, just a few weeks before what would have been his 89th birthday. 

Born to sharecroppers in Fayette County, Georgia, Beasley said in interviews that a history lesson opened his eyes to the power of activism.  

"When I was able to attend school in a segregated, one-room school house, I learned about the Haitian Revolution that began with the rebellion of African slaves in 1791 and ended when the French were defeated at the Battle of Vertieres in 1803," Beasley wrote in African Leadership Magazine in 2015. "The battle effectively ended slavery there and got me energized. I remember thinking as I read about it that it was possible to have a different life."

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force who attended graduate school at Clark Atlanta University, Beasley first joined the Jesse Jackson-founded Operation PUSH in 1976, according to nonprofit The History Makers. In 1979, he moved back to his home state of Georgia to work as the executive director of the organization's Atlanta chapter. He continued with the organization for decades, eventually being named Southern Regional Director. At the same time, he began serving as the human service director at Atlanta's Antioch Baptich Church North.

Beasley's work took him across Georgia and around the world. He traveled to South Africa to register voters ahead of Nelson Mandela's historic electoral victory in 1994 and went to Haiti to monitor the nation's second democratic election the next year, The History Makers said.

"Joe Beasley's legacy runs deep — from growing up on a Georgia plantation to serving 21 years in the Air Force, to becoming a powerful voice for justice through Rainbow PUSH," Attorney Gerald Griggs wrote. "He spent his life fighting for civil rights at home and abroad. A true global servant for our people."

Beasley also founded and led African Ascension, an organization with the goal of linking Africans on the continent with those in the diaspora.

"He devoted his life to uplifting our people, confronting injustice, and standing steadfast on the front lines of the struggle for human and civil rights not only in Georgia, but across the globe," the Georgia NAACP wrote on Facebook. "His voice was bold, his spirit unbreakable, and his impact immeasurable."

Beasley's funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.