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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING JOSEPH LOWERY
______
HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON
of mississippi
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the
life of a remarkable leader and civil rights activist, Mr. Joseph
Lowery.
Mr. Joseph Echols Lowery was born to Leroy and Dora Lowery on October
6, 1921, in Huntsville, Alabama. At age 11, Lowery was abused by a
white police officer for not stepping off the sidewalk as a white man
passed by. From there, his parents sent him to Chicago, Illinois, to
stay with family and attend junior high. He later returned to his
hometown to complete his secondary education at William Hooper Council
High School. Lowery attended Knoxville College, Alabama A&M College,
and concluded at Paine College. He also attended ministerial training
at Payne Theological Seminary and completed a Doctor of Divinity degree
at the Chicago Ecumenical Institute.
From 1952 to 1961, Lowery pastored Mobile's Warren Street Methodist
Church. His Civil Rights career started in the early 1950's. He helped
lead the Montgomery bus boycott--headed the Alabama Civic Affairs
Association. He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
along with Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, and a few
others--leading the organization as President from 1977 to 1997. Also,
he was co-founder and President of the Black Leadership Forum. He
served as the pastor of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta from
1986 through 1992.
In 1950, Lowery married Evelyn Gibson. They had three daughters
together: Yvonne Kennedy, Karen Lowery, and Cheryl Lowery-Osborne. He
also had two sons from an earlier marriage with Agnes Moore: Joseph Jr.
and LeRoy III.
In 1965, Lowery participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery march.
Atlanta's city government renamed Ashby Street to Joseph E. Lowery
Boulevard which travels past Atlanta's prestigious Historically Black
Colleges and Universities: Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College,
Morehouse College, and Morris Brown College.
As a member of the esteemed brotherhood of Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity, Incorporated, Lowery received the NAACP Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1997, the inaugural Walter P. Reuther Humanitarian
Award from Wayne State University in 2003, the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Center Peace Award, and the National Urban League's Whitney M. Young,
Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Ebony named him one of the 15
greatest black preachers. He received several honorary doctorates from
colleges and universities, including Dillard University, Morehouse
College, Alabama State University, University of Alabama in Huntsville,
and Emory University. Lowery was honored at the International Civil
Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic
Site in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2004.
On January 20, 2009, Lowery delivered the benediction at the
inauguration of Senator Barack Obama as the 44th President of the
United States of America. On July 30, 2009, he was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. He was also given the
Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award by the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute.
Joseph Lowery died on March 27, 2020, in Atlanta, Georgia, at 98
years old.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the late
Mr. Joseph Echols Lowery for his passion and dedication to ministry and
civil rights.
____________________
