Acclaimed US jazz singer Abbey Lincoln, who was also a dedicated civil rights activist, has died at the age of 80, her family said.

Ms Lincoln died on Saturday in a nursing home in New York, according to Evelyn Mason, her niece.

No cause was given, but she had been in failing health.

Ms Lincoln built a career as an actress and singer in the late 1950s and 1960s. She stopped singing during the 1970s, but returned to the stage years later. Her first album, Affair ... a Story of a Girl in Love was released in 1956 and became an immediate success.

That same year she appeared in her first film, The Girl Can’t Help It.

Ms Lincoln became active in the civil rights movement after marrying in 1962 drummer Max Roach, who was a bebop pioneer with an interest in progressive causes.

One of the highlights of her career was the 1968 romantic comedy For Love of Ivy, where she starred opposite Sidney Poitier.