Joseph Lowery

Joseph Echols Lowery (1921-2020) is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement.

Bio from Wikipedia, 1/4/2012

Joseph LoweryLowery later became the third president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his immediate successor, Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, and participated in most of the major activities of the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

In 2004, Rev. Dr. Lowery was honored at the “International Civil Rights Walk of Fame” at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, located in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the National Park Service, the Walk of Fame was created “to give recognition to those courageous soldiers of justice who sacrificed and struggled to make equality a reality for all.”

Early Life

Joseph E. Lowery was born to LeRoy and Dora Lowery on October 6, 1921. He attended middle school in Chicago while staying with relatives, but he returned to Huntsville, Alabama, to complete high school. He next attended the Knoxville College and Alabama A&M College, before finishing his bachelor of arts degree at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Lowery next entered the Paine Theological Seminary to become a Methodist minister. Rev. Lowery is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Later on, he completed a doctorate of divinity degree at the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. He married Evelyn Gibson in 1950, a civil rights activist and leader in her own right. She is the sister of the late Rev. Dr. Harry Gibson an activist, and Elder member of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church, Chicago Area.

Dr. and Mrs. Lowery have three daughters: Yvonne Kennedy, Karen Lowery, and Cheryl Lowery-Osborne.

American Civil Rights Career

Lowery was pastor of the Warren Street United Methodist Church, in Mobile, Alabama from 1952 until 1961. His career in the civil rights movement began in the early 1950s in Mobile, Alabama. After Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, an organization devoted to the desegregation of buses and public places. In 1957, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lowery founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and subsequently led the organization as its president from 1977 to 1997.

Lowery’s property was seized in 1959 along with that of other civil rights leaders by the State of Alabama as part of the settlement of a libel suit. The Supreme Court of the United States later ordered this court decision to be reversed. At the request of Dr. King, Lowery led the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965. Lowery is a co-founder and former president of the Black Leadership Forum, a consortium of Black advocacy groups. This Forum protested the existence of Apartheid in South Africa from the mid-1970s through the end of the white-minority rule there. Joseph Lowery was among the first five Black men to be arrested outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., during the Free South Africa movement. Lowery served as the pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta from 1986 through 1992, adding over a thousand members and leaving the church with 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land.

Lowery is now retired from the ministry, but he remains active in the civil rights movement and in Christian activities.

To honor Reverend Lowery, the city government of Atlanta renamed Ashby Street for him. Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard is just west of downtown Atlanta and runs north-south beginning at West Marietta Street near the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology and stretching to White Street in the “West End” neighborhood, running past Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Morris Brown College. Perhaps not coincidentally, this street intersects both Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive and the Ralph David Abernathy Expressway.

Reverend Lowery has advocated for LGBT civil rights, including civil unions, but is more hesitant on same-sex marriage.

Recordings:

Beating Plowshares into Swords - Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture
Speaker(s): Joseph Lowery, Bobbie McClain

Description: Sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery (1921-2020) the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and pastor of Central UMC in Atlanta. A good biographical introduction precedes the sermon (believed to be by Rev. Bobby McClain.) Lowery speaks about justice involving a holistic perspective including the issues of jobs, freedom, and peace. The tape includes "Lift Every Voice and Sing," scripture from Isaiah 52 and Luke 4, the introduction, and the sermon. The audio dropout at 16:13 is on the original tape and the break at 33:42 is where the original cassette tape was turned over.
Length: 58:32
Recording Date: 1/22/1985
Recorded at: Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC

Remembrances of the Central Jurisdiction
Speaker(s): Joseph Lowery

Description: The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery (1921-2020) talks about his personal experience in the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church, and his civil rights work. This recording is from a series of interviews conducted by Pamela Crosby at a 2004 reunion of persons who were part of the Central Jurisdiction. Lowery, a preacher and civil rights advocate, said the Central Jurisdiction was mysterious and had its own mystique. The Central Jurisdiction was a "micro-microcosm" of life in the United States, where minorities have lived in a system dominated by a white majority. The Central Jurisdiction era represented a journey for black Methodists to achieve dignity and justice in a white-controlled institution. Lowery was a founder and chief executive officer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He retired from active United Methodist ministry in 1997 and from the SCLC in 1998 but still remains active. He works to encourage African Americans to vote, and recently recorded a rap with artist NATE the Great to help spread this message. (UMNS photo by Mike DuBose)
Length: 4:47
Recording Date: 8/28/2004
Recorded at: College Park, Georgia

Response to Burned Black Churches
Speaker(s): Joseph Lowery, Mike Hickcox (reporter)

Description: In the previous eighteen months, 25-30 black churches across the American South had been bombed and burned. In this news report, a response comes from Dr. Joseph Lowery (1921-2020) president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Length: 2:29
Recording Date: 6/8/1996
Recorded at: Spectrum Radio Religion News Studio, Rochester, New Hampshire

Sing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land
Speaker(s): Joseph Lowery, Woodie White

Description: Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery (1921-2020) speaks to the 25th anniversary meeting of BMCR (Black Methodists for Church Renewal) in 1993. He is introduced by Bishop Woodie White. The subtitle of this presentation could be, "Everything Has Changed, Nothing Has Changed" as he looks at changes over the decades, and where that has not succeeded in making fundamental changes.
Length: 46:37
Recording Date: 1993
Recorded at: Unknown