Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law professor and mentor to the Obamas, dies at age 70

Charles Ogletree, the civil rights attorney and Harvard Law School professor who mentored the Obamas and represented clients including Anita Hill, Tupac Shakur and the victims of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, died on Friday, according to Harvard Law School.

He was 70. The cause of death was Alzheimer's disease, the school said.

Ogletree, born in 1952, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1978 and worked as an attorney for the District of Columbia Public Defender Service before returning to Harvard Law as a lecturer in 1984, Harvard said. Known as "Tree," he founded the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the Criminal Justice Institute at the law school, Dean John F. Manning said in a statement.

"Charles was a tireless advocate for civil rights, equality, human dignity, and social justice. He changed the world in so many ways, and he will be sorely missed in a world that very much needs him," Manning said.

Ogletree represented several high-profile clients, including Hill when she accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during Thomas' confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, according to Harvard. He represented the rapper Tupac in his legal issues, and he defended his colleague Henry Louis Gates Jr. after his controversial arrest at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2009.

In addition, Ogletree became one of the foremost legal advocates for reparations when he created the Reparations Coordinating Committee, a team of lawyers, academics and officials that sued on behalf of the victims of slavery and racism. Along with Johnnie Cochran and other attorneys, he represented the survivors and victims' descendants of the 1921 Tulsa race riots in a lawsuit in the early 2000s asking for reparations.

Though the suit was ultimately dismissed, it helped bring renewed attention to the riots and the broader issue of reparations.