Colin Powell, the first Black US Secretary of State has died following a battle with COVID-19.

He was 84.

“General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff passed away this morning due to complications from COVID-19.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” CNN has quoted Powell’s family.

Powell is survived by his wife, Alma Vivian (Johnson) Powell, whom he married in 1962, as well as three children.

He was born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrants.