Joseph Lowery (born October 6, 1921 , Huntsville , Alabama ) is a clergyman in the United Methodist Church and leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. He later became the third president of the Conference of Southern Christian Leadership , after Martin Luther King and his automatically succeeded co-founder Prep. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, and participated in most of the 1960s African American Civil Rights Movement.
| Joseph Ekols Lowery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | October 6, 1921 (97 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Huntsville , Alabama |
| Citizenship |  USA |
| Occupation | |
| Spouse | Evelyn Lowery |
| Children | Ivon, Karen, Cheryl |
| Awards and prizes |
|
In 2004, Dr. Lowery was credited with the “International Gallery of the Glory of Civil Rights” at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the US National Park Service, the Glory Gallery was created "to acknowledge the merits of the brave soldiers of justice, who sacrificed and fought in order to make equality a reality for all." [one]
Biography
Early years
Joseph Lowery was born of LeRoy and Dora Lowery on October 6, 1921. He went to high school in Chicago , living with relatives, but returned to Huntsville, Alabama, to graduate from high school. He then continued his studies at Knoxville College and the University of Agriculture and Mechanics of Alabama , before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Payne College in Augusta, Georgia . Lower then entered Payne Theological Seminary to become a priest. Rev. Lowery is a member of the Alpha Fee Alpha Brotherhood.
He then received a doctorate in theology from the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. [2] He married Evlyn Lowery in 1950, a human rights defender and leader because of his personal qualities. She is the sister of the late Rev. Harry Harry Gibson, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church's Northern Illinois Conference, Chicago.
The Lowry couple have three daughters: Ivon Kennedy, Karen Lowery, and Cheryl Lowery-Osbourne.
Human Rights Defender Career
Lowery was the pastor of the United Methodist Church on Warren Street, Mobile, Alabama. Following the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955, Lowery helped drive a Boycott of bus lines to Montgomery . He led the Alabama Civil Affairs Association, and his focus was on bus and public desegregation. In 1957, together with Martin Luther King, he founded the Conference of Southern Christian Leadership and subsequently led the organization as its president from 1977 to 1997.
The property of Lowery was seized in 1959 by the state of Alabama, as well as the property of other human rights defenders, during the investigation of the libel case. The US Supreme Court ruled to reverse this judgment. The ruling was issued as a result of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Highway by Joseph Lowery Marsha . Lowery is a founding member and ex-president of the Black Leadership Forum , a consortium of African-American human rights groups. The forum protested against the existence of apartheid in South Africa from the mid-1970s until the end of the reign of the white minority there. Joseph Lowery was one of five African Americans protesting in front of the South African embassy in Washington during the Free South African movement. Lowery served as pastor of the Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta from 1986 to 1992, replenishing the flock with thousands of parishioners.
Lowery now does not work as a pastor, but continues active human rights and Christian activities.
In honor of Rev. Lower, the Atlanta City Administration renamed Ashby Street to Joseph E. Lower Boulevard. Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard is located directly to the west of the city center, heading north-south from West Marietta Street near the Georgia Institute of Technology campus and stretching to White Street in the West End suburb, passing through historically black universities Atlanta: Clark University of Atlanta , Spelman College , Morehouse College and Morris Brown College . Probably not coincidentally, this street intersects Martin Luther King Street and Ralph David Albernati Highway (a close friend and associate of Martin Luther King).
Prizes
Rev. Joseph Lowery has received several awards. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presented at its 1997 rally "For Human Rights Activities" an Award for Outstanding Achievements. He also received an award from the Martin Luther King Center Peace Prize and from the Whitney Young of the National City League Award for Excellence in 2004. Ebony magazine named him one of the fifteen greatest black preachers, describing him as “a perfect speaker of biblical social significance, not afraid to raise the voice of truth before the authorities.” Lowery also received several honorary degrees from Dillard University , Morhouse College , which studied three generations of Martin Luther King's, University of Alabama , University of Alabama Huntsville, and Emory University . Lowery was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2009. [3] He also received an award from Fred Shuttlesworth of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for the defense of civil rights in the same year. [four]
Coretta Scott King's funeral and criticism
In 2006, at the funeral of Coretta Scott King (Martin Luther King’s wife, Jr.), Mr. Lowery stood ovation in response to a remark in front of the four US presidents present. :
We know that there was no WMD there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that we have the wrong course weapons right here. A million people without honey provision. Poverty abounds. Even more billions to war, but to the poor - not a cent more!
Conservative observers said his comment was inappropriate in the presence of President Bush at the ceremony. [5] [6] None of Mrs. None of the King family objected to this remark [7]
President Barack Obama's Inaugural Blessing
On January 20, 2009, Dr. Lowery gave the blessing of the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, for the presidency. He began with the lines of the song “Raise All Your Voices and Sing,” also known as the “National Negroid Anthem” by James Weldon Johnson. . He concluded his speech by interpolating the blues song of Big Bill Brunzy:
Lord, in the name of all the saints resting after their work, in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help to work for the day when black people will not be asked to go back, when brown people will not stay at a distance, when yellow ones will feel relaxed, and when whites accept what is right. All those who bring justice, mercy and love, let's say Amen! Amen! Amen! [eight]
Eleven days after the inauguration, Lowery attended the 90th birthday of Moon Song Moon at the Hammerstein Grand Ballroom, located in the Manhattan Center, and gave a congratulatory speech. [9] Lower’s relationship with Moon dates back to at least the mid-1980s when he spoke at pickets to defend Moon’s innocence, serving eighteen months in prison on charges of tax evasion by the government, according to some politicians, because of racial and religious intolerance. (See US Government v. Moon Song Myung ) [9] . According to Moon himself in his memoirs, Obama, while still a little-known senator, repeatedly attended events affiliated with the first, [9] [10] and in 1975 at a conference in Chicago in his public speech, Moon predicted that “in 30 years in America the president will be a black man from marriage to a white woman. ” [ten]
Notes
- ↑ About the International Civil Rights: Walk of Fame
- ↑ Haskins, Jim. Black Stars: African-American Religious Leaders. - San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008 .-- P. 91.
- ↑ “President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients” , White House Office of the Press Secretary, July 30, 2009
- ↑ MacDonald, Ginny (August 8, 2009) “Civil rights pioneer Lowery to be honored.” Birmingham News
- ↑ Greenfield, Jeff . Greenfield: 'Do you really do this at a funeral?' , CNN (February 8, 2006). Date of treatment January 11, 2009.
- ↑ Matthews, Chris . 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Feb. 7th , Hardball with Chris Matthews (February 7, 2006). Date of treatment January 11, 2009.
- ↑ Blitzer, Wolf . Coretta Scott King: Use peaceful means for peaceful ends , CNN (January 14, 2003). Date of treatment January 11, 2009.
- ↑ Text of Rev. Lowery's inauguration benediction , AP (January 20, 2009). Archived January 23, 2009. Date of treatment January 20, 2009.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Weapons on church benches
- ↑ 1 2 Moon Song Men’s Memoirs in electronic form