Autopsy: Death of Ex-State NAACP President Ruled a Suicide

The Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, then-president of the North Carolina NAACP, crumples up a mailer which tells voters that IDs are needed in the upcoming 2020 election during a news conference outside the Legislative Building in Raleigh, N.C., on Dec. 27, 2019. Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP

A civil rights advocate and former president of the North Carolina branch of the NAACP died by suicide in his Greensboro home last summer, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday.

The Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, 71, who also served as president of the N.C. Council of Churches was found on a basement couch on July 19, 2022, according to a report by the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.